Programming and Data Structures using Python 25 March 2021

Final Exam, Dec 2020–Mar 2021 Marks: 65, Weightage: 40%

1. In the code fragment below, start and end are integer values and square(x) is a function
that returns True if x is a perfect square and False otherwise.

(i,j,k) = (0,0,0)
for m in range(start,end):
if square(m):
i = i - 1
k = k - 1
else:
j = j + 1
k = k - 1

Provide an expression connecting the values i, j and k that is invariant after each iteration
of the for loop. (For example, such an expression could be i+k == 2*j.) Explain why your
expression is a loop invariant. (5 marks)

2. Consider the following Python code.

def f():
global l3,x2
l1 = l3 + [74]
l2.append(80)
l3 = l3 + [90]
x1 = x2 + 31
x2 = x2 + 42

(l1,l2,l3) = ([73],[82],[91])
(x1,x2) = (20,21)
f()

What are the values of l1, l2, l3, x1, and x2 at the end of the execution? Explain your
answer. (5 marks)

3. We have an incomplete Python function definition, along with its behaviour in the Python
intepreter, as described below.

def f(.........):
print("a",a,"b",b,"c",c,"d",d)

>>> f(d=4,a=3)
a 3 b 20 c 35 d 4

>>> f(3,5,7)
a 5 b 7 c 35 d 3

>>> f(3,b=7)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: f() missing 1 required positional argument: ’a’

What was the original definition of the function f? Explain your answer. (5 marks)

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Programming and Data Structures using Python 25 March 2021
Final Exam, Dec 2020–Mar 2021 Marks: 65, Weightage: 40%

4. Consider the min-heap [17, 21, 38, 39, 76, 89, 54, 43, 42] built by repeatedly inserting values
into an empty heap. Identify all the values that could have been the last element inserted
into this heap. Explain your answer. (5 marks)

5. Suppose we add this function foo() to a class Tree that implements binary trees. For
an object t of type Tree, the attributes t.value, t.left and t.right, and the functions
t.isempty() and t.isleaf() have the usual interpretation. Given an object mytree of type
Tree, what would mytree.foo() compute? Explain your answer.

def foo(self):
if self.isempty():
return(0)
elif self.isleaf():
return(1)
else:
return(1 + max(self.left.foo(), self.right.foo()))

(5 marks)

6. Consider a plate stacked with several disks, each of a different diameter (they could all be,
for instance, dosas or chapatis of different sizes). We want to sort these disks in decreasing
order according to their diameter so that the widest disk is at the bottom of the pile. The
only operation available for manipulating the disks is to pick up a stack of them from the top
of the pile and invert that stack. (This corresponds to lifting up a stack dosas or chapatis
between two big spoons and flipping the stack.)
Assume the stack of disks is represented as a list A that stores the diameters of the disks,
where A[0] is the bottom disk and A[len(A)-1] is the top disk. The function flip(A,i)
flips the stack from A[i] to A[len(A)-1].

def flip(A,i):
A[i:] = reversed(A[i:])
return

Write a Python function dosasort that takes as input a list A of integers and sorts it in
descending order using only the function flip to rearrange elements in the list.
(10 marks)

7. Consider user-defined lists in Python built class Node:

up from the basic class Node defined on the def __init__(self,initval=None):
right. As discussed in class, an empty list self.value = initval
is represented by a Node with both value self.next = None
and next set to None. return
Add a function mymap to the class that
takes a function f and transforms each def mymap(self,f):
value v in the list to f(v). # To be written by you
(10 marks)

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Programming and Data Structures using Python 25 March 2021
Final Exam, Dec 2020–Mar 2021 Marks: 65, Weightage: 40%

8. Write a Python class DSet that implements a set of values. (These can be any immutable
values, but to be concrete you can assume the values are integers.) Internally, use a dictionary
to represent the set through its keys.

(a) The constructor should take a list of values and convert it into a set. Remember that a
set has no duplicate values. If no list is provided, the constructor should create an empty
set.
(b) The class should have functions size, member, union and intersection with the ex-
pected interpretation.
• Given a set S, S.size() returns the number of elements in S.
• Given a set S and a value x, S.member(x) returns True if x belongs to S and False
otherwise.
• Given sets S and T, S.union(T) and S.intersection(T) should return new sets
corresponding to S ∪ T and S ∩ T, respectively.

(10 marks)

9. An alignment between two strings w1 and w2 (over the alphabet {a, b, c, . . . , z}) is obtained
by inserting hyphens in the two strings such that the modified strings align (i.e., the modified
strings are of equal length, and at each position, either both strings have the same letter or
one of the strings has a hyphen).
Here are three examples of alignments. The first is between ocurrance and occurrence and
the second and third are between ctatg and ttaagc.

(1) oc-urr-ance (2) ct-at-g- (3) ctat---g-

occurre-nce -tta-agc ---ttaagc

A mismatch in an alignment is a position where one of modified strings has a hyphen and
the other does not. There are three mismatches in the first alignment given above, five
mismatches in the second, and seven mismatches in the third. The best alignment is the one
with the fewest mismatches.
Let s and t be the two strings to be matched, of length m and n, respectively. Let M[i][j]
be the number of mismatches in the best alignment of s[:i] and t[:j]

(a) Write a recursive formulation of M[i][j].

(b) Write Python code to compute M[m][n] using dynamic programming.

(10 marks)