6/18/2017 AlgorithmsInterviewQuestions

AlgorithmsInterviewQuestions | 35960

1.Definetheconceptofanalgorithm.

Analgorithmisanywelldefinedcomputationalprocedurethattakessomevalue(orsetofvalues)asinputandproducessomevalue(orsetof
values)asoutput.Inshort,itcanbeseenasasequenceofcomputationalstepsthattransformtheinputintotheoutput.

2.Whataretheargumentspresentinpatternmatchingalgorithms?

ThesearethefollowingargumentswhicharepresentinpatternmatchingAlgorithms.
1)Subject,
2)Pattern
3)Cursor
4)MATCH_STR
5)REPLACE_STR
6)REPLACE_FLAG

3.ExplainthefunctionSUBinalgorithmicnotation?

Inthealgorithmicnotationratherthanusingspecialmarkersymbols,generallypeopleusethecursorpositionplusasubstringlengthtoisolate
asubstring.ThenameofthefunctionisSUB.
SUBreturnsavaluethesubstringofSUBJECTthatisspecifiedbytheparametersiandjandanassumedvalueofj.

4.InAlgorithmiccontexthowwouldyoudefinebookkeepingoperations?

Usuallywhenauserwantstoestimatetimeheisolatesthespecificfunctionandbrandsitasactiveoperation.Theotheroperationsinthe
algorithm,theassignments,themanipulationsoftheindexandtheaccessingofavalueinthevector,occurnomoreoftenthantheadditionof
vectorvalues.Theseoperationsarecollectivelycalledas bookkeepingoperations .

5.Defineanddescribeaniterativeprocesswithgeneralstepsofflowchart?

Therearefourpartsintheiterativeprocesstheyare
Initialization:Thedecisionparameterisusedtodeterminewhentoexitfromtheloop.
Decision:Thedecisionparameterisusedtodeterminewhethertoremainintheloopornot.

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Computation:Therequiredcomputationisperformedinthispart.
Update:Thedecisionparameterisupdatedandatransfertothenextiterationresults.

6.Staterecursionanditsdifferenttypes?

Recursionisthenamegiventothetechniqueofdefiningasetoraprocessintermsofitself.Thereareessentiallytwotypesofrecursion.The
firsttypeconcernsrecursivelydefinedfunctionandthesecondtypeofrecursionistherecursiveuseofaprocedure.

7.Defineandstatetheimportanceofsubalgorithmincomputationanditsrelationshipwithmainalgorithm?

Asubalgorithmisanindependentcomponentofanalgorithmandforthisreasonisdefinedseparatelyfromthemainalgorithm.Thepurpose
ofasubalgorithmistoperformsomecomputationwhenrequired,undercontrolofthemainalgorithm.Thiscomputationmaybeperformedon
zeroormoreparameterspassedbythecallingroutine.

8.Nameanythreeskillswhichareveryimportantinordertoworkwithgeneratingfunctions.

Thethreemostimportantskillswhichareusedextensivelywhileworkingwithgeneratingfunctionsare
1)Manipulatesummationexpressionsandtheirindices.
2)Solvealgebraicequationsandmanipulatealgebraicexpressions,includingpartialfunctiondecompositions.
3)Identifysequenceswiththeirgeneratingfunctions

9.WhatisthegeneralstrategyforMarkovAlgorithm?

ThegeneralstrategyinaMarkovAlgorithmistotakeasinputastringxand,throughanumberofstepsinthealgorithm,transformxtoan
outputstringy.thistransformationprocessisgenerallyperformedincomputersfortexteditingorprogramcompilation.

10.Definestringinanalgorithmicnotationandanexampletosupportit?

Inthealgorithmicnotation,astringisexpressedasanysequenceofcharactersenclosedinsinglequotemarks.

11.HowtofindmedianofaBST?

Findtheno.ofelementsontheleftside.
Ifitisn1therootisthemedian.
Ifitismorethann1,thenithasalreadybeenfoundintheleftsubtree.

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Elseitshouldbeintherightsubtree

12.WhatisDiffieHellman?

Itisamethodbywhichakeycanbesecurelysharedbytwouserswithoutanyactualexchange.

13.Whatisthegoaloftheshortestdistancealgorithm?
Thegoaliscompletelyfillthedistancearraysothatforeachvertexv,thevalueofdistance[v]istheweightoftheshortestpathfromstartto
v.

14.Explainthedepthofrecursion?

Thisisanotherrecursionprocedurewhichisthenumberoftimestheprocedureiscalledrecursivelyintheprocessofenlargingagiven
argumentorarguments.Usuallythisquantityisnotobviousexceptinthecaseofextremelysimplerecursivefunctions,suchasFACTORIAL
(N),forwhichthedepthisN.

15.ExplainaboutthealgorithmORD_WORDS?

ThisalgorithmconstructsthevectorsTITLE,KEYWORDandT_INDEX.

16.Whicharethesortingalgorithmscategories?

Sortingalgorithmscanbedividedintofivecategories:
a)insertionsorts
b)exchangesorts
c)selectionsorts
d)mergesorts
e)distributionsorts

17.Defineabruteforcealgorithm.Giveashortexample.

Abruteforcealgorithmisatypeofalgorithmthatproceedsinasimpleandobviousway,butrequiresahugenumberofstepstocomplete.As

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anexample,ifyouwanttofindoutthefactorsofagivennumberN,usingthissortofalgorithmwillrequiretogetonebyoneallthepossible
numbercombinations.

18.Whatisagreedyalgorithm?Giveexamplesofproblemssolvedusinggreedyalgorithms.

Agreedyalgorithmisanyalgorithmthatmakesthelocaloptimalchoiceateachstagewiththehopeoffindingtheglobaloptimum.Aclassical
problemwhichcanbesolvedusingagreedystrategyisthetravelingsalesmanproblem.Anotherproblemsthatcanbesolvedusinggreedy
algorithmsarethegraphcoloringproblemandalltheNPcompleteproblems.

19.Whatisabacktrackingalgorithm?Provideseveralexamples.

Itisanalgorithmthatconsiderssystematicallyallpossibleoutcomesforeachdecision.Examplesofbacktrackingalgorithmsaretheeight
queensproblemorgeneratingpermutationsofagivensequence.

20.Whatisthedifferencebetweenabacktrackingalgorithmandabruteforceone?

Duetothefactthatabacktrackingalgorithmtakesallthepossibleoutcomesforadecision,itissimilarfromthispointofviewwiththebrute
forcealgorithm.Thedifferenceconsistsinthefactthatsometimesabacktrackingalgorithmcandetectthatanexhaustivesearchis
unnecessaryand,therefore,itcanperformmuchbetter.

21.Describedivideandconquerparadigm.

Whenaproblemissolvedusingadivideandconqueralgorithm,itissubdividedintooneormoresubproblemswhichareallsimilartothe
originalprobleminsuchawaythateachofthesubproblemscanbesolvedindependently.Intheend,thesolutionstothesubproblemsare
combinedinordertoobtainthesolutiontotheoriginalproblem.

22.Describeonshortaninsertionsortingalgorithm.

Analgorithmthatsortsbyinsertiontakestheinitial,unsortedsequenceandcomputesaseriesofsortedsequencesusingthefollowingrules:
a)thefirstsequenceintheseriesistheemptysequence
b)givenasequenceS(i)intheseries,for0<=i

23.Whicharetheadvantagesprovidedbyinsertionsort?

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Insertionsortprovidesseveraladvantages:
a)simpleimplementation
b)efficientforsmalldatasets
c)adaptiveefficientfordatasetsthatarealreadysubstantiallysorted:thetimecomplexityisO(n+d),wheredisthenumberofinversions
d)moreefficientinpracticethanmostothersimplequadratic,i.e.O(n2)algorithmssuchasselectionsortorbubblesortthebestcase(nearly
sortedinput)isO(n)
e)stabledoesnotchangetherelativeorderofelementswithequalkeys
f)inplaceonlyrequiresaconstantamountO(1)ofadditionalmemoryspace
g)onlinecansortalistasitreceivesit

24.Shortlydescribethequicksortalgorithm.

Inquicksort,thestepsperformedarethefollowing:
a)pickanelement,calledapivot,fromthelist
b)reorderthelistsothatallelementswithvalueslessthanthepivotcomebeforethepivot,whileallelementswithvaluesgreaterthanthe
pivotcomeafterit(equalvaluescangoeitherway)
c)recursivelysortthesublistoflesserelementsandthesublistofgreaterelements

25.Whatisthedifferencebetweenselectionandinsertionsorting?

Ininsertionsortingelementsareaddedtothesortedsequenceinanarbitraryorder.Inselectionsorting,theelementsareaddedtothesorted
sequenceinordersotheyarealwaysaddedatoneend.

26.Whatismergesorting?

Mergingisthesortingalgorithmwhichcombinestwoormoresortedsequencesintoasinglesortedsequence.Itisadivideandconquer
algorithm,anO(nlogn)comparisonbasedsortingalgorithm.Mostimplementationsproduceastablesort,meaningthattheimplementation
preservestheinputorderofequalelementsinthesortedoutput.

27.Whicharethemainstepsofamergesortingalgorithm?

Sortingbymergingisarecursive,divideandconquerstrategy.Thebasicstepstoperformarethefollowing:
a)dividethesequenceintotwosequencesoflength
b)recursivelysorteachofthetwosubsequences
c)mergethesortedsubsequencestoobtainthefinalresult

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28.Provideashortdescriptionofbinarysearchalgorithm.

Binarysearchalgorithmalwayschoosesthemiddleoftheremainingsearchspace,discardingonehalfortheother,againdependingonthe
comparisonbetweenthekeyvaluefoundattheestimatedpositionandthekeyvaluesought.Theremainingsearchspaceisreducedtothepart
beforeoraftertheestimatedposition.

29.Whatisthelinearsearchalgorithm?

Linearsearchisamethodforfindingaparticularvalueinalistwhichconsistsofcheckingeveryoneofitselements,oneatatimeandin
sequence,untilthedesiredoneisfound.Itisthesimplestsearchalgorithm,aspecialcaseofbruteforcesearch.Itsworstcasecostis
proportionaltothenumberofelementsinthelistandsoisitsexpectedcost,ifalllistelementsareequallylikelytobesearchedfor.
Therefore,ifthelisthasmorethanafewelements,othermethods(suchasbinarysearchorhashing)maybemuchmoreefficient.

30.Whatisbestfirstsearchalgorithm?

Itisasearchalgorithmthatconsiderstheestimatedbestpartialsolutionnext.Thisistypicallyimplementedwithpriorityqueues.

31.WhatisHuffmancoding?

Incomputerscienceandinformationtheory,Huffmancodingisanentropyencodingalgorithmusedforlosslessdatacompression.Theterm
referstotheuseofavariablelengthcodetableforencodingasourcesymbol(suchasacharacterinafile)wherethevariablelengthcode
tablehasbeenderivedinaparticularwaybasedontheestimatedprobabilityofoccurrenceforeachpossiblevalueofthesourcesymbol.

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