Viva Questions and Answers - BCSL404 (Analysis & Design of Algorithms Lab)
Q1. What is an algorithm?
A: An algorithm is a finite set of well-defined instructions to solve a problem or
perform a computation.
Q2. What are common algorithm design techniques?
A: Divide and Conquer, Greedy, Dynamic Programming, Backtracking, and Branch and
Bound etc.
Q3. What is time complexity?
A: Time complexity is a measure of the amount of time an algorithm takes to run,
based on input size.
Q4. What is the difference between worst-case, average-case, and best-case
complexities? A:
- Best-case: Minimum time required.
- Average-case: Expected time over all inputs.
- Worst-case: Maximum time for the largest inputs.
Experiment 1: Kruskals Algorithm
Q5. What is the goal of Kruskals algorithm?
A: To find the minimum cost spanning tree using edge-based greedy approach.
Q6. What data structure is used for cycle detection in Kruskals?
A: Disjoint Set Union (DSU) or Union-Find.
Q7. What is the time complexity of Kruskals
algorithm? A: O(E log E), where E = number of
edges.
Experiment 2: Prims Algorithm
Q8. What is the difference between Prim's and Kruskal's algorithm?
A: Prims grows MST from a starting node using adjacent vertices; Kruskals selects globally
smallest edge.
Q9. What is the time complexity of Prim's algorithm?
A: O(V2) with adjacency matrix; O((V + E) log V) with min-heap.
Experiment 3a: Floyd-Warshall
Q10. Can Floyd-Warshall handle negative
weights? A: Yes, but not negative weight
cycles.
Q11. What is the time complexity of Floyd-
Warshall? A: O(V3)
Experiment 3b: Warshalls Algorithm
Q12. What is the purpose of Warshalls algorithm?
A: To compute the transitive closure of a directed graph using logical operations.
Q13. What operations are used in Warshall's
algorithm? A: Logical OR and AND.
Experiment 4: Dijkstras Algorithm
Q14. Can Dijkstras algorithm be used for negative
weights? A: No, it assumes shortest paths do not
improve once visited.
Q15. What is the time complexity of Dijkstras
algorithm? A: O((V + E) log V) with min-priority
queue.
Experiment 5: Topological Sort
Q16. What is topological sort used for?
A: Scheduling tasks, resolving dependencies in DAGs.
Q17. Can a graph with cycles have a topological
sort? A: No, only DAGs can be topologically
sorted.
Experiment 6: 0/1 Knapsack
Q18. What is the 0/1 Knapsack problem?
A: Selecting items with maximum value without exceeding knapsack capacity.
Q19. What is the time complexity using DP?
A: O(nW), where `n` = items and `W` = capacity.
Experiment 7: Greedy Knapsack
Q20. Is greedy method optimal for 0/1
knapsack? A: No, its only optimal for
fractional knapsack.
Q21. How are items selected in greedy
knapsack? A: By selecting based on
profit/weight ratio.
Experiment 8: Subset Sum
Q22. What is the subset sum problem?
A: Finding a subset whose sum equals a target.
Q23. What is the strategy
used? A: Backtracking with
pruning.
Experiment 9: Selection Sort
Q24. What is the complexity of selection
sort? A: O(n2) in all cases.
Q25. Is selection sort
stable? A: No.
Experiment 10: Quick Sort
Q26. What is the average and worst-case complexity?
A: Average: O(n log n), Worst: O(n2).
Q27. Is quick sort
stable?
A: No.
Experiment 11: Merge Sort
Q28. What is the time complexity of merge
sort? A: O(n log n).
Q29. Is merge sort
stable? A: Yes.
Experiment 12: N-Queens Problem
Q30. What is the objective of the N-Queens problem?
A: Place N queens on an NN board such that no two queens attack each other.
Q31. What is the time complexity using
backtracking? A: O(N!).
Additional Questions
Q32. What is the difference between backtracking and dynamic programming?
A: Backtracking explores possibilities recursively; DP stores results of subproblems.
Q33. What is memoization?
A: Top-down DP to store already computed values.
Q34. What is a greedy algorithm?
A: Algorithm that makes locally optimal choices at each step.
General Algorithm and Complexity Concepts
Q1. What is the difference between an algorithm and a program?
A: An algorithm is a logical step-by-step procedure, while a program is its
implementation in a programming language.
Q2. What is space complexity?
A: It is the amount of memory space required by an algorithm during its execution.
Q3. What is Big O notation?
A: It represents the upper bound of an algorithms running time, used for worst-case
analysis.
Q4. Define asymptotic notations.
A: They describe the behavior of functions for large input sizes: Big-O (upper bound),
Omega (lower bound), and Theta (tight bound).
Q5. What is the Master Theorem?
A: It provides a way to analyze time complexity of divide-and-conquer algorithms.
Greedy Algorithms and MST
Q6. Why are Kruskal's and Prim's algorithms called greedy?
A: Because they make a series of choices that seem best at the moment (locally optimal).
Q7. What is the main condition for a graph to have an
MST? A: The graph must be connected and
undirected.
Q8. How do you detect a cycle in Kruskals
algorithm? A: Using the Union-Find data
structure.
Dynamic Programming and Backtracking
Q9. What is the principle of optimality in dynamic programming?
A: An optimal solution to the problem contains optimal solutions to subproblems.
Q10. In what cases would dynamic programming be preferred over
recursion? A: When the problem has overlapping sub problems and
optimal substructure.
Q11. Why is backtracking inefficient for large problem spaces?
A: Because it explores many possible solutions and may be exponential in complexity.
Q12. What is the key difference between backtracking and
brute-force? A: Backtracking prunes paths early if they are not
promising.
Sorting Algorithms
Q13. Which sorting algorithms are comparison-based?
A: Selection sort, Quick sort, Merge sort, Bubble sort, Heap sort.
Q14. What is the auxiliary space of merge sort?
A: O(n), because it uses additional arrays for merging.
Q15. Why is quick sort not stable?
A: It may change the relative order of equal elements due to swapping.
Q16. Which sorting algorithm is best suited for nearly
sorted data? A: Insertion sort.
Graph Algorithms and Traversals
Q17. What is the key difference between BFS and Dijkstras algorithm?
A: BFS is used in unweighted graphs to find shortest paths; Dijkstra is used for weighted
graphs.
Q18. What is the output of topological sort?
A: A linear ordering of vertices such that for every directed edge u v, u appears before v.
Q19. Can Floyd-Warshall detect negative cycles?
A: Yes, if the diagonal of the distance matrix becomes negative.
Special Problems
Q20. How many solutions exist for the 4-Queens
problem? A: Two distinct solutions (considering
symmetric variations).
Q21. What is the constraint check in N-Queens
problem? A: No two queens in the same row,
column, or diagonal.
