C Programming -- Sample Questions

1. Q What does the term cast refer to? Why is it used? A Casting is a mechanism built into C that allows the programmer to force the conversion of data types. This may be needed because most C functions are very particular about the data types they process. A programmer may wish to override the default way the C compiler promotes data types. 2. Q In arithmetic expressions, to what data type will the C compiler promote a character? A It will promote it to an integer unless otherwise directed.

3. Q What is the difference between a statement and a block? A A statement is a single C statement terminated with a semicolon. A block is a series of statements, the group of which is enclosed in curly-braces.

4. Q Increment the variable next three different ways. A next = next + 1; and next++; and next += 1;

5. Q How is a comment formed in C. A Comments in C begin with a slash followed by an asterisk. Any text may then appear including newlines. The comment is finished with an asterisk followed by a slash. Example: /* This is a comment */

6. Q Can comments be nested? A Not in standard (K&R) C.

7. Q From the standpoint of programming logic, what is the difference between a loop with the test at the top, and a loop where the test is at the bottom? A If the test is at the bottom, the body of the loop will always be executed at least once. When the test is at the top, the body of the loop may never be executed. 8. Q Specify the skeletons of two C loops with the test at the top. A next = 0; /* setup */

while ( next < max) { /* test */ printf("Hello "); /* body */ next++; /* update */ } and for ( next = 0; next < max; next++) /* setup,test */ /* and update */ printf("Hello"); /* body */

9. Q Specify a C loop with the test at the bottom. A next = 0; /* setup */ do { printf("Hello"); /* body */ next++; /* update */ } while ( next < max); /* test */

10. Q What is the switch statement? A It is C's form of multiway-conditional (a.k.a case statement in Pascal).

11. Q What does a break statement do? Which control structures use it? A The break statement unconditionally ends the execution of the smallest enclosing while, do, for or switch statement.

12. Q In a loop, what is the difference between a break and continue statement? A The break terminates the loop. The continue branches immediately to the test portion of the loop.

13. Q Where may variables be defined in C? A Outside a function definition (global scope, from the point of definition downward in the source code). Inside a block before any statements other than variable declarations (local scope with respect to the block). 14. Q What is the difference between a variable definition and a variable declaration? A A definition tells the compiler to set aside storage for the variable. A declaration makes the variable known to parts of the program that may wish to use it. A variable might be defined and declared in the same statement.

15. Q What is the purpose of a function prototype? A A function prototype tells the compiler to expect a given function to be used in a given way. That is, it tells the compiler the nature of the parameters passed to the function (the quantity, type and order) and the nature of the value returned by the function.

16. Q What is type checking? A The process by which the C compiler ensures that functions and operators use data of the appropriate type(s). This form of check helps ensure the semantic correctness of the program.

17. Q To what does the term storage class refer? A This is a part of a variable declaration that tells the compiler how to interpret the variable's symbol. It does not in itself allocate storage, but it usually tells the compiler how the variable should be stored.

18. Q List C's storage classes and what they signify. A static Variables are defined in a nonvolatile region of memory such that they retain their contents though out the program's execution. register Asks the compiler to devote a processor register to this variable in order to speed the program's execution. The compiler may not comply and the variable looses it contents and identity when the function it which it is defined terminates. external Tells the compiler that the variable is defined in another module. volatile Tells the compiler that other programs will be modifying this variable in addition to the program being compiled. For example, an I/O device might need write directly into a program or data space. Meanwhile, the program itself may never directly access the memory area in question. In such a case, we would not want the compiler to optimize-out this data area that never seems to be used by the program, yet must exist for the program to function correctly in a larger context. 19. Q State the syntax for the printf() and scanf() functions. State their one crucial difference with respect to their parameters. A Where fmtStr tells printf() how to format the variable list that follows. var1 through varN may be variables of any base type. scanf( fmtStr, &var1, &var2, &varN); This routine is the input compliment to printf(). scanf() requires the address of each variable instead of the variable's value (as in printf()). This is subtle source of serious bugs.

20. Q With respect to function parameter passing, what is the difference between call-by-value and call-byreference? Which method does C use? A In the case of call-by-reference, a pointer reference to a variable is passed into a function instead of the actual value. The function's operations will effect the variable in a global as well as local sense. Call-byvalue (C's method of parameter passing), by contrast, passes a copy of the variable's value into the function. Any changes to the variable made by function have only a local effect and do not alter the state of the variable passed into the function.

21. Q What is a structure and a union in C? A A structure is an aggregate data type. It combines one or more base or aggregate data types into a package that may treated as a whole. A structure is like a record in other languages. A union combines two or more data types in the same area of storage. The contents of a union may be one data type at one time and another type at a different time. A union is sometimes called a trick-record.

22. Q Define a structure for a simple name/address record. A struct nameAddr { char name[30]; char addr[30]; char city[20]; char state[3]; char zip[5]; };

23. Q What does the typedef keyword do? A This keyword provides a short-hand way to write variable declarations. It is not a true data typing mechanism, rather, it is syntactic "sugar coating." 24. Q Use typedef to make a short-cut way to declare a pointer to the nameAddr structure above. Call it addrPtr. A typedef struct nameAddr *addrPtr;

25. Q Declare a variable with addrPtr called address. A addrPtr address;

26. Q Assuming the variable address above, how would one refer to the city portion of the record within a C statement? A address->city

27. Q What is the difference between: A #include <stdio.h> and #include "stdio.h" A They both specify a file for inclusion into the current source file. The difference is where the file stdio.h is expected to be. In the case of the brackets, the compiler will look in all the default locations. In the case of the quotes, the compiler will only look in the current directory.

28. Q What is #ifdef used for?

A It is used for condition compilation. Specifically the source code between #ifdef and #endif (or #else) is compiled if the associated symbol is defined to the compiler.

28. Q How do you define a constant in C? A The C language itself has no provision for constants. However, its companion program, the preprocessor, can be used to make manifest constants. It does this through the use of the #define keyword.

29. Q Why can't you nest structure definitions? A Trick question: You can nest structure definitions.

30. Q Can you nest function definitions? A No. (You can in Pascal, a close relative to C.) 31. Q What is a forward reference? A It is a reference to a variable or function before it is defined to the compiler. The cardinal rule of structured languages is that everything must be defined before it can be used. There are rare occasions where this is not possible. It is possible (and sometimes necessary) to define two functions in terms of each other. One will obey the cardinal rule while the other will need a forward declaration of the former in order to know of the former's existence. Confused?

32. Q What are the following and how do they differ: int, long, float and double? A int An integer, usually +/- 215 in magnitude. long A larger version of int, usually +/- 231 in magnitude. float A single precision real (floating point) number. Magnitude varies. double A double precision real number. Magnitude varies.

33. Q Define a macro called SQR which squares a number. A #define SQR(x) (x * x) (The parenthesis around "x * x" are extremely important because the macro may be expanded into a place where any embedded spaces could cause the compiler to misinterpret the statement. The consequences could range from a pesky syntax error to wrong answers when the program is run.). Moral: The preprocessor does not know C.

34. Q Is it possible to take the square-root of a number in C. Is there a square-root operator in C? A Yes. There is no square-root operator; such computation is performed though the use of a function. 35. Q Using fprintf() print a single floating point number right-justified in a field of 20 spaces, no leading zeros, and 4 decimal places. The destination should be stderr and the variable is called num.

A fprintf( stderr, "%-20.4f", num);

36. Q What is the difference between the & and && operators and the | and || operators? A & and | are bitwise AND and OR operators respectively. They are usually used to manipulate the contents of a variable on the bit level. && and || are logical AND and OR operators respectively. They are usually used in conditionals. 37. Q What is the difference between the -> and . operators? A They both provide access to members of a structure or union. They differ in that -> is used when the variable is a pointer to a structure or union. The dot is used when the variable is itself the structure or union. The -> operator combines the pointer dereferencing operator with the member access operator; it is syntactic "sugar coating." address->city is equivalent to (*address).city.

38. Q What is the symbol for the modulus operator? A % (the percent symbol)

39. Q From the standpoint of logic, what is the difference between the fragment: if (next < max) next++; else next = 0; and the fragment: next += (next < max)? (1):(-next); A Nothing. They are different ways to express the same logic.

40. Q What does the following fragment do? while((d=c=getch(),d)!=EOF&&(c!='\t'||c!=' '||c!='\b')) *buff++ = ++c; A Do the following until either the end of standard input or the variable c takes on the value of a tab, space, or backspace character: Store the character that succeeds the character stored in c into the current location pointed by buff. Then increment buff to point to the next location in memory. Meanwhile, d is assigned the same value as c and it is the value of d that is used in the comparison to EOF.

41. Q Is C case sensitive (ie: does C differentiate between upper and lower case letters)? A Yes.

41. Q Specify how a filestream called inFile should be opened for random reading and writing. the file's name is in fileName.

A inFile = fopen( fileName, "r+"); 42. Q What does fopen() return if successful. If unsuccessful? A Upon success fopen() returns a pointer to a filestream. Otherwise it returns the value of NULL.

43. Q What is the void data type? What is a void pointer? A The void data type is used when no other data type is appropriate. A void pointer is a pointer that may point to any kind of object at all. It is used when a pointer must be specified but its type is unknown.

44. Q Declare a pointer called fnc which points to a function that returns an unsigned long. A unsigned long (*fnc)();

45. Q Declare a pointer called pfnc which points to a function that returns a pointer to a structure of type nameAddr. A struct nameAddr *(*pfnc)();

46. Q It is possible for a function to return a character, an integer, and a floating point number. Is it possible for a function to return a structure? Another function? A No. However, it is possible to return pointers to structures and functions.

47. Q What is the difference between an lvalue and an rvalue? A The lvalue refers to the left-hand side of an assignment statement. It must always evaluate to a memory location. The rvalue represents the right-hand side of an assignment statement; it may have any meaningful combination of variables and constants.

48. Q Given the decimal number 27, how would one express it as a hexadecimal number in C? A 0x1B

49. Q What is malloc()? A This function allocates heap storage for dynamic data structures. 50. Q What is the difference between malloc() and calloc()? A The malloc() function allocates raw memory given a size in bytes. On the other hand, calloc() clears the requested memory to zeros before return a pointer to it. (It can also compute the request size given the size of the base data structure and the number of them desired.)

51. Q What kind of problems was C designed to solve?

A C was designed to be a "universal" assembly language. It is used for producing system software such as operation systems, compilers/interpreters, device drivers, editors, DBMS's and similar things. It is not as well suited to application programs.

Microsoft Interview Questions & Answers

I recently visited Microsoft's Silicon Valley campus and interviewed with the Hotmail group. If you've never had a Microsoft interview, realize that they are very different than the standard interview. You won't be asked any of those questions like, "What is your greatest weakness," or, "Where do you want to be in five years?" Rather, a Microsoft interview typically contains a number of brain teasers and coding questions. In fact, you can read interview questions from my internship interviews. Here are the questions I was asked, accompanied with the answers right below the question! So, once you reach the end of the question, don't read any further unless you want to immediately know the answer! Anyway, here goes: Question: How could you determine if a linked list contains a cycle in it, and, at what node the cycle starts? Answer: There are a number of approaches. The approach I shared is in time N (where N is the number of nodes in your linked list). Assume that the node definition contains a boolean flag, bVisited. struct Node { ... bool bVisited; }; Then, to determine whether a node has a loop, you could first set this flag to false for all of the nodes: // Detect cycle // Note: pHead points to the head of the list (assume already exists) Node *pCurrent = pHead; while (pCurrent) { pCurrent->bVisited = false; pCurrent = pCurrent->pNext; } Then, to determine whether or not a cycle existed, loop through each node. After visiting a node, set bVisited to true. When you first visit a node, check to see if the node has already been visited (i.e., test bVisited == true). If it has, you've hit the start of the cycle! bool bCycle = false; pCurrent = pHead; while (pCurrent && !pCycle) { if (pCurrent->bVisited == true) // cycle! pCycle = true; else { pCurrent->bVisited = true; pCurrent = pCurrent->pNext; } } A much better approach was submitted by 4Guys visitor George R., a Microsoft interviewer/employee. He recommended using the following technique, which is in time O(N) and space O(1).

Use two pointers.

// error checking and checking for NULL at end of list omitted p1 = p2 = head; do { p1 = p1->next; p2 = p2->next->next; } while (p1 != p2);

p2 is moving through the list twice as fast as p1. If the list is circular, (i.e. a cycle exists) it will eventually get around to that sluggard, p1.
Thanks George! Question: How would you reverse a doubly-linked list? Answer: This problem isn't too hard. You just need to start at the head of the list, and iterate to the end. At each node, swap the values of pNext and pPrev. Finally, set pHead to the last node in the list. Node * pCurrent = pHead, *pTemp; while (pCurrent) { pTemp = pCurrent->pNext; pCurrent->pNext = pCurrent->pPrev; pCurrent->pPrev = temp; pHead = pCurrent; pCurrent = temp; } Question: Assume you have an array that contains a number of strings (perhaps char * a[100]). Each string is a word from the dictionary. Your task, described in high-level terms, is to devise a way to determine and display all of the anagrams within the array (two words are anagrams if they contain the same characters; for example, tales and slate are anagrams.) Answer: Begin by sorting each element in the array in alphabetical order. So, if one element of your array was slate, it would be rearranged to form aelst (use some mechanism to know that the particular instance of aelst maps to slate). At this point, you slate and tales would be identical: aelst. Next, sort the entire array of these modified dictionary words. Now, all of the anagrams are grouped together. Finally, step through the array and display duplicate terms, mapping the sorted letters (aelst) back to the word (slate or tales). Question: Given the following prototype: int compact(int * p, int size); write a function that will take a sorted array, possibly with duplicates, and compact the array, returning the new length of the array. That is, if p points to an array containing: 1, 3, 7, 7, 8, 9, 9, 9, 10, when the function returns, the contents of p should be: 1, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, with a length of 5 returned. Answer: A single loop will accomplish this. int compact(int * p, int size) { int current, insert = 1; for (current=1; current < size; current++) if (p[current] != p[insert-1]) { p[insert] = p[current]; current++; insert++; } else

current++; } Happy Programming!

Microsoft Interview Questions

Read the answers Perhaps you have heard that when Microsoft interviews potential employees, the ask them a series of mindbenders. Having recently experienced a Microsoft interview let me assure you the rumors are indeed true. Here are some of the questions that the four of us were asked when interviewed by MS:

You are given a scale which you are to use to measure eight balls. Seven of these balls have the same weight: the eigth ball is heavier than the rest. The scale does not indicate the weight of a particular object; it is a scale which tells you which of the two sides being weighed is heavier (like the scale that lady of justice statue holds up). So, for example you could place one ball on each end of the scale. If ball one was heavier than ball two, it would tip in ball one's direction; if ball two were heavier, it would tip to ball three's direction; if the balls were of equal weight, the scale would not tip at all. What is the minimum number of weighs you could perform to find the heaviest of the eight balls? Imagine, now, that you have seven balls of unknown weight, given that six are of the same weight, and the seventh is heavier than the rest. Using the same scale as described above, what is the minimum number of weights you could perform to find the heaviest of the seven balls? Imagine that you have 26 constants, labelled A through Z. Each constant is assigned a value in the following way: A = 1; the rest of the values equal their position in the alphabet (B corresponds to the second position so it equals 2, C = 3, etc.) raised to the power of the preceeding constant value. So, B = 2 ^ (A's value), or B = 2^1 = 2. C = 3^2 = 9. D = 4^9, etc., etc. Find the exact numerical value to the following equation: (X - A) * (X - B) * (X - C) * ... * (X - Y) * (X - Z) Write C code to implement atoi And fimally, the hum-dinger: There are four people who need to cross a bridge at night. The bridge is only wide enough for two people to cross at once. There is only one flashlight for the entire group. When two people cross, they must cross at the slower member's speed. All four people must cross the bridge in 17 minutes, since the bridge will collapse in exactly that amount of time. Here are the times each member takes to cross the bridge: Person A: 1 minute Person B: 2 minutes Person C: 5 minutes

Person D: 10 minutes

So, if Person A and C crossed the bridge initally, 5 minutes would elapse, because Person C takes 5 minutes to cross. Then, Person A would have to come back to the other side of the bridge, taking another minue, or six minutes total. Now, if Person A and D crossed the bridge next, it would take them 10 minutes, totalling to 16 minutes. If A came back, it would take yet another minute, totally 17... the bridge would collapse with A and B on the wrong side. How can all four people get across the bridge within 17 minutes? Note: there is no trick-answer to this problem. You can't do tricky stuff like throwing the flashlight back from one end of the bridge to the other. This problem can be solved!
Did you like these questions? If so, you can read more interview questions from my 1/21/00 interview! (Note that these are programming-type questions...) Continue with the Interview Questions!