Data Structure Interview Questions – Set 01

What are the advantages of Binary search over linear search?

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

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 representation of the data structure in the computer memory.

File structure: It is the representation of the storage structure in the auxiliary memory.

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 situation.

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

Write the stack overflow condition.

Overflow occurs when top = Maxsize -1

Which data structure suits the most in the tree construction?

Queue data structure

Define the queue data structure.

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

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 partitioned into the nonempty sets where each one of them is to be called sub-tree.

What is an array?

Arrays are defined as the collection of similar types of data items stored at contiguous memory locations. It is the simplest data structure in which each data element can be randomly accessed by using its index number.

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 vertices and E(G) represents the set of edges which are used to connect these vertices. A graph can be seen as a cyclic tree, where the vertices (Nodes) maintain any complex relationship among them instead of having parent-child relations.

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.