Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Advanced Data Structures and Algorithms

M.Tech. I Year I Term
ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS

Module I: Essentials of Data Structures

1. Explain the various asymptotic notations used for analyzing algorithms and their
significance in algorithm design.
2. Describe the different types of basic data structures, including arrays, linked lists, stacks,
and queues. Discuss their advantages and limitations in terms of memory usage and
operation complexity.
3. What is the importance of analyzing algorithms? Explain the process of analyzing an
algorithm in terms of time complexity and space complexity.

Module II: Stacks and Queues

1. Define the Stack Abstract Data Type (ADT). Explain its operations (push, pop, peek),
and implement a stack using both arrays and linked lists.
2. Explain the Queue ADT and its various types such as circular queues, priority queues,
and double-ended queues. Compare the implementation of each type.
3. Discuss the various applications of stacks and queues in real-world scenarios, such as
expression evaluation, browser history, and scheduling tasks.
Module III: Advanced Trees

1. Explain the concept of Binary Trees and Binary Search Trees (BST). Discuss the
advantages and disadvantages of using binary search trees, and explain how to perform
insertion and deletion operations in a BST.
2. Describe AVL Trees and their balancing mechanism. How are rotations used to maintain
the balance of an AVL Tree?
3. Explain Red-Black Trees and their properties. Discuss the algorithms for insertion and
deletion in a Red-Black Tree, and how they differ from AVL Trees.

Module IV: Graph Algorithms

1. Describe the different ways of representing a graph in computer memory. Compare and
contrast adjacency matrix and adjacency list representations.
2. Explain Depth-First Search (DFS) and Breadth-First Search (BFS) graph traversal
algorithms. Discuss their time complexity and their applications in solving problems like
pathfinding and connected components.
3. Discuss Prim’s and Kruskal’s algorithms for finding the Minimum Spanning Tree (MST)
in a graph. Explain the steps of each algorithm with examples.

Module V: Pattern Matching Algorithms

1. Explain the Brute Force method for pattern matching. Discuss its time complexity and
situations where it may be used despite its inefficiency.
2. Describe the Knuth-Morris-Pratt (KMP) algorithm for string matching. How does KMP
improve on the brute force method, and what is its time complexity?
3. Explain the Boyer-Moore algorithm for pattern matching. Discuss the role of the bad
character rule and the good suffix rule in optimizing the search process.
Module VI: Searching Strategies

1. Explain the Interpolation Search algorithm. How does it differ from binary search?
Discuss the time complexity of Interpolation Search and when it is more efficient than
binary search.
2. Discuss the Exponential Search algorithm and its applications. How does it work, and in
which situations can it outperform binary search?
3. Explain Jump Search and its working principle. Compare its time complexity with linear
search and binary search.

Module VII: Sorting Strategies

1. Describe the Heap Sort algorithm. Explain how the heap data structure is used to sort
elements and analyze the time complexity of the algorithm.
2. Explain the Shell Sort algorithm. How does it improve on Insertion Sort, and what are the
variations of the gap sequence in Shell Sort?
3. Discuss the Multi-way Merge Sort algorithm. Explain its usage in external sorting and
how it is implemented efficiently with multiple input files.

Module VIII: Dynamic Programming Techniques

1. Explain the concept of dynamic programming and how it differs from divide and
conquer. Discuss the principle of optimality and overlapping subproblems.
2. Describe the Matrix Chain Multiplication problem. Using dynamic programming, explain
how to find the optimal parenthesization of matrix products.
3. Explain the 0/1 Knapsack problem and its solution using dynamic programming. Discuss
the time complexity of the approach and the space optimization techniques used.
Module IX: Divide and Conquer Strategies

1. Explain Strassen’s Matrix Multiplication algorithm. Discuss how it reduces the time
complexity of matrix multiplication and the trade-offs involved.
2. Describe the Master Theorem for Divide and Conquer recurrences. Provide examples to
explain how to apply the theorem to solve recurrences.
3. Discuss parallel algorithms in the context of divide and conquer strategies. Explain how
parallelism is utilized in algorithms like merge sort and matrix multiplication.

Module X: Hashing in Data Structures

1. Explain the concept of a hash table and its operations (insertion, deletion, and search).
Discuss the factors that affect the performance of hash tables.
2. Describe different types of hash functions and their characteristics. How do hash
functions impact the efficiency of hash tables, and what is the role of collision resolution
techniques?
3. Discuss various collision resolution techniques such as chaining, open addressing, and
double hashing. Explain their advantages and disadvantages in different situations.

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