DSA Interviews Ques on

1) What is Data Structure? Explain.

The data structure is a way that specifies how to organize and manipulate the data. It also defines the
rela onship between them. Some examples of Data Structures are arrays, Linked List, Stack, Queue, etc. Data
Structures are the central part of many computer science algorithms as they enable the programmers to
handle the data in an efficient way

2) Describe the types of Data Structures?

Data Structures are mainly classified into two types:

Linear Data Structure: A data structure is called linear if all of its elements are arranged in the sequen al order.
In linear data structures, the elements are stored in a non-hierarchical way where each item has the successors
and predecessors except the first and last element.

Non-Linear Data Structure: The Non-linear data structure does not form a sequence i.e. each item or element
is connected with two or more other items in a non-linear arrangement. The data elements are not arranged in
the sequen al structure.

3) List the area of applica ons of Data Structure.

Data structures are applied extensively in the following areas of computer science:

o Compiler Design,

o Opera ng System,

o Database Management System,

o Sta s cal analysis package,

o Numerical Analysis,

o Graphics,

o Ar ficial Intelligence,

o Simula on

4) What is the difference between file structure and storage structure?

Difference between file structure and storage structure:

The main difference between file structure and storage structure is based on memory area that is being
accessed.

Storage structure: It is the representa on of the data structure in the computer memory.

File structure: It is the representa on of the storage structure in the auxiliary memory.
Adver sement

5) List the data structures which are used in RDBMS, Network Data Modal, and Hierarchical Data Model.

o RDBMS uses Array data structure

o Network data model uses Graph

o Hierarchal data model uses Trees

6) Which data structure is used to perform recursion?

Stack data structure is used in recursion due to its last in first out nature. Opera ng system maintains the stack
in order to save the itera on variables at each func on call

7) What is a Stack?

Stack is an ordered list in which, inser on and dele on can be performed only at one end that is called the top.
It is a recursive data structure having pointer to its top element. The stack is some mes called as Last-In-First-
Out (LIFO) list i.e. the element which is inserted first in the stack will be deleted last from the stack.

8) List the area of applica ons where stack data structure can be used?

o Expression evalua on

o Backtracking

o Memory Management

o Func on calling and return

9) What are the opera ons that can be performed on a stack?

o Push Opera ons

o Pop Opera ons

o Peek Opera ons

10) Write the stack overflow condi on.

Overflow occurs when top = Maxsize -1

11) What is the difference between PUSH and POP?

PUSH and POP opera ons specify how data is stored and retrieved in a stack.

PUSH: PUSH specifies that data is being "inserted" into the stack.

POP: POP specifies data retrieval. It means that data is being deleted from the stack.
12) Write the steps involved in the inser on and dele on of an element in the stack.

Push:

o Increment the variable top so that it can refer to the next memory alloca on

o Copy the item to the at the array index value equal to the top

o Repeat step 1 and 2 un l stack overflows

Pop:

o Store the topmost element into the an another variable

o Decrement the value of the top

o Return the topmost element

13) What is a pos ix expression?

An expression in which operators follow the operands is known as pos ix expression. The main benefit of this
form is that there is no need to group sub-expressions in parentheses or to consider operator precedence.

The expression "a + b" will be represented as "ab+" in pos ix nota on.

Adver sement

14)Write the pos ix form of the expression: (A + B) * (C - D)

AB+CD-*

)15) Which nota ons are used in Evalua on of Arithme c Expressions using prefix and pos ix forms?

Polish and Reverse Polish nota ons.

16)What is an array?

Arrays are defined as the collec on of similar types of data items stored at con guous memory loca ons. It is
the simplest data structure in which each data element can be randomly accessed by using its index number.

17) How to reference all the elements in a one-dimension array?

It can be done by using an indexed loop such that the counter runs from 0 to the array size minus one. In this
manner, you can reference all the elements in sequence by using the loop counter as the array subscript.

18) What is a mul dimensional array?

The mul dimensional array can be defined as the array of arrays in which, the data is stored in tabular form
consists of rows and columns. 2D arrays are created to implement a rela onal database lookalike data
structure. It provides ease of holding the bulk of data at once which can be passed to any number of func ons
wherever required.

19) How are the elements of a 2D array are stored in the memory?

There are two techniques by using which, the elements of a 2D array can be stored in the memory.

o Row-Major Order: In row-major ordering, all the rows of the 2D array are stored into the memory
con guously. First, the 1st row of the array is stored into the memory completely, then the 2nd row of
the array is stored into the memory completely and so on ll the last row.

o Column-Major Order: In column-major ordering, all the columns of the 2D array are stored into the
memory con guously. first, the 1st column of the array is stored into the memory completely, then
the 2nd row of the array is stored into the memory completely and so on ll the last column of the
array.

20) Calculate the address of a random element present in a 2D array, given base address as BA.

Row-Major Order: If array is declared as a[m][n] where m is the number of rows while n is the number of
columns, then address of an element a[i][j] of the array stored in row major order is calculated as,

Address(a[i][j]) = B. A. + (i * n + j) * size

Column-Major Order: If array is declared as a[m][n] where m is the number of rows while n is the number of
columns, then address of an element a[i][j] of the array stored in column major order is calculated as

Address(a[i][j]) = ((j*m)+i)*Size + BA.

21) Define Linked List Data structure.

Linked List is the collec on of randomly stored data objects called nodes. In Linked List, each node is linked to
its adjacent node through a pointer. A node contains two fields, i.e. Data Field and Link Field.

22) Are linked lists considered linear or non-linear data structures?

A linked list is considered both linear and non-linear data structure depending upon the situa on.
 o On the basis of data storage, it is considered as a non-linear data structure.

o On the basis of the access strategy, it is considered as a linear data-structure.

23) What are the advantages of Linked List over an array?

o The size of a linked list can be incremented at run me which is impossible in the case of the array.

o The List is not required to be con guously present in the main memory, if the con guous space is not
available, the nodes can be stored anywhere in the memory connected through the links.

o The List is dynamically stored in the main memory and grows as per the program demand while the
array is sta cally stored in the main memory, size of which must be declared at compile me.

o The number of elements in the linked list are limited to the available memory space while the number
of elements in the array is limited to the size of an array.

24) Write the syntax in C to create a node in the singly linked list.

1. struct node

2. {

3. int data;

4. struct node *next;

5. };

6. struct node *head, *ptr;

7. ptr = (struct node *)malloc(sizeof(struct node));

25) If you are using C language to implement the heterogeneous linked list, what pointer type should be used?

The heterogeneous linked list contains different data types, so it is not possible to use ordinary pointers for
this. For this purpose, you have to use a generic pointer type like void pointer because the void pointer is
capable of storing a pointer to any type.

26) What is doubly linked list?

The doubly linked list is a complex type of linked list in which a node contains a pointer to the previous as well
as the next node in the sequence. In a doubly linked list, a node consists of three parts:

o node data

o pointer to the next node in sequence (next pointer)

o pointer to the previous node (previous pointer).

27) Write the C program to insert a node in circular singly list at the beginning.

1. #include<stdio.h>
2. #include<stdlib.h>

3. void beg_insert(int);

4. struct node

5. {

6. int data;

7. struct node *next;

8. };

9. struct node *head;

10. void main ()

11. {

12. int choice,item;

13. do

14. {

15. prin ("\nEnter the item which you want to insert?\n");

16. scanf("%d",&item);

17. beg_insert(item);

18. prin ("\nPress 0 to insert more ?\n");

19. scanf("%d",&choice);

20. }while(choice == 0);

21. }

22. void beg_insert(int item)

23. {

24.

25. struct node *ptr = (struct node *)malloc(sizeof(struct node));

26. struct node *temp;

27. if(ptr == NULL)

28. {

29. prin ("\nOVERFLOW");

30. }

31. else

32. {

33. ptr -> data = item;

34. if(head == NULL)

 35. {

36. head = ptr;

37. ptr -> next = head;

38. }

39. else

40. {

41. temp = head;

42. while(temp->next != head)

43. temp = temp->next;

44. ptr->next = head;

45. temp -> next = ptr;

46. head = ptr;

47. }

48. prin ("\nNode Inserted\n");

49. }

50.

51. }

52. \

28) Define the queue data structure.

A queue can be defined as an ordered list which enables insert opera ons to be performed at one end called
REAR and delete opera ons to be performed at another end called FRONT.

29) List some applica ons of queue data structure.

The Applica ons of the queue is given as follows:

o Queues are widely used as wai ng lists for a single shared resource like a printer, disk, CPU.

o Queues are used in the asynchronous transfer of data (where data is not being transferred at the same
rate between two processes) for eg. pipes, file IO, sockets.

o Queues are used as buffers in most of the applica ons like MP3 media player, CD player, etc.

o Queues are used to maintain the playlist in media players to add and remove the songs from the play-
list.

o Queues are used in opera ng systems for handling interrupts.

30) What are the drawbacks of array implementa on of Queue?

o Memory Wastage: The space of the array, which is used to store queue elements, can never be reused
to store the elements of that queue because the elements can only be inserted at front end and the
value of front might be so high so that, all the space before that, can never be filled.

o Array Size: There might be situa ons in which, we may need to extend the queue to insert more
elements if we use an array to implement queue, It will almost be impossible to extend the array size,
therefore deciding the correct array size is always a problem in array implementa on of queue.

31) What are the scenarios in which an element can be inserted into the circular queue?

o If (rear + 1)%maxsize = front, the queue is full. In that case, overflow occurs and therefore, inser on
can not be performed in the queue.

o If rear != max - 1, the rear will be incremented to the mod(maxsize) and the new value will be inserted
at the rear end of the queue.

o If front != 0 and rear = max - 1, it means that queue is not full therefore, set the value of rear to 0 and
insert the new element there.

32) What is a dequeue?

Dequeue (also known as double-ended queue) can be defined as an ordered set of elements in which the
inser on and dele on can be performed at both the ends, i.e. front and rear.

33) What is the minimum number of queues that can be used to implement a priority queue?

Two queues are needed. One queue is used to store the data elements, and another is used for storing
priori es.

34) Define the tree data structure.

The Tree is a recursive data structure containing the set of one or more data nodes where one node is
designated as the root of the tree while the remaining nodes are called as the children of the root. The nodes
other than the root node are par oned into the nonempty sets where each one of them is to be called sub-
tree.

35) List the types of tree.

There are six types of tree given as follows.

o General Tree

o Forests

o Binary Tree

o Binary Search Tree

 o Expression Tree

o Tournament Tree

36) What are Binary trees?

A binary Tree is a special type of generic tree in which, each node can have at most two children. Binary tree is
generally par oned into three disjoint subsets, i.e. the root of the node, le sub-tree and Right binary sub-
tree.

37) Write the C code to perform in-order traversal on a binary tree.

1. void in-order(struct treenode *tree)

2. {

3. if(tree != NULL)

4. {

5. in-order(tree→ le );

6. prin ("%d",tree→ root);

7. in-order(tree→ right);

8. }

9. }

38) What is the maximum number of nodes in a binary tree of height k?

2k+1-1 where k >= 1

39) Which data structure suits the most in the tree construc on?

Queue data structure

40) Which data structure suits the most in the tree construc on?

Queue data structure

41) Write the recursive C func on to count the number of nodes present in a binary tree.

1. int count (struct node* t)

2. {

3. if(t)

4. {

5. int l, r;
 6. l = count(t->le );

7. r=count(t->right);

8. return (1+l+r);

9. }

10. else

11. {

12. return 0;

13. }

14. }

42) Write a recursive C func on to calculate the height of a binary tree.

1. int countHeight(struct node* t)

2. {

3. int l,r;

4. if(!t)

5. return 0;

6. if((!(t->le )) && (!(t->right)))

7. return 0;

8. l=countHeight(t->le );

9. r=countHeight(t->right);

10. return (1+((l>r)?l:r));

11. }

43) How can AVL Tree be useful in all the opera ons as compared to Binary search tree?

AVL tree controls the height of the binary search tree by not le ng it be skewed. The me taken for all
opera ons in a binary search tree of height h is O(h). However, it can be extended to O(n) if the BST becomes
skewed (i.e. worst case). By limi ng this height to log n, AVL tree imposes an upper bound on each opera on to
be O(log n) where n is the number of nodes.

44) State the proper es of B Tree.

 A B tree of order m contains all the proper es of an M way tree. In addi on, it contains the following
proper es.

o Every node in a B-Tree contains at most m children.

o Every node in a B-Tree except the root node and the leaf node contain at least m/2 children.

SN B Tree B+ Tree

1 Search keys cannot repeatedly be stored. Redundant search keys can be present.

Data can be stored in leaf nodes as well as

2 Data can only be stored on the leaf nodes.
internal nodes

Searching for some data is a slower process

Searching is compara vely faster as data
3 since data can be found on internal nodes
can only be found on the leaf nodes.
as well as on the leaf nodes.

Dele on will never be a complexed process

Dele on of internal nodes is so complicated
4 since element will always be deleted from
and me-consuming.
the leaf nodes.

Leaf nodes are linked together to make the

5 Leaf nodes cannot be linked together.
search opera ons more efficient.

o The root nodes must have at least 2 nodes.

o All leaf nodes must be at the same level.

45) What are the differences between B tree and B+ tree?

46) List some applica ons of Tree-data structure?

Applica ons of Tree- data structure:

o The manipula on of Arithme c expression,

o Symbol Table construc on,

o Syntax analysis

o Hierarchal data model

47) Define the graph data structure?

A graph G can be defined as an ordered set G(V, E) where V(G) represents the set of ver ces and E(G)
represents the set of edges which are used to connect these ver ces. A graph can be seen as a cyclic tree,
where the ver ces (Nodes) maintain any complex rela onship among them instead of having parent-child
rela ons.
48) Differen ate among cycle, path, and circuit?

o Path: A Path is the sequence of adjacent ver ces connected by the edges with no restric ons.

o Cycle: A Cycle can be defined as the closed path where the ini al vertex is iden cal to the end vertex.
Any vertex in the path can not be visited twice

o Circuit: A Circuit can be defined as the closed path where the in al vertex is iden cal to the end
vertex. Any vertex may be repeated.

49) Men on the data structures which are used in graph implementa on.

For the graph implementa on, following data structures are used.

o In sequen al representa on, Adjacency matrix is used.

o In Linked representa on, Adjacency list is used.

50) Which data structures are used in BFS and DFS algorithm?

o In BFS algorithm, Queue data structure is used.

o In DFS algorithm, Stack data structure is used.

51) What are the applica ons of Graph data structure?

The graph has the following applica ons:

o Graphs are used in circuit networks where points of connec on are drawn as ver ces and component
wires become the edges of the graph.

o Graphs are used in transport networks where sta ons are drawn as ver ces and routes become the
edges of the graph.

o Graphs are used in maps that draw ci es/states/regions as ver ces and adjacency rela ons as edges.

o Graphs are used in program flow analysis where procedures or modules are treated as ver ces and
calls to these procedures are drawn as edges of the graph.

54) In what scenario, Binary Search can be used?

Binary Search algorithm is used to search an already sorted list. The algorithm follows divide and conqer
approach

Example:
52) What are the advantages of Binary search over linear search?

There are rela vely less number of comparisons in binary search than that in linear search. In average case,
linear search takes O(n) me to search a list of n elements while Binary search takes O(log n) me to search a
list of n elements.

53) What are the advantages of Selece on Sort?

o It is simple and easy to implement.

o It can be used for small data sets.

o It is 60 per cent more efficient than bubble sort.

55) List Some Applica ons of Mul linked Structures?

o Sparse matrix,

o Index genera on.

56) What is the difference between NULL and VOID?

o Null is actually a value, whereas Void is a data type iden fier.

o A null variable simply indicates an empty value, whereas void is used to iden fy pointers as having no
ini al size.