Frequently asked C++ Interview Questions and Answers -4

What is a scope resolution operator?

A scope resolution operator (::), can be used to define the member functions of a class outside the class.

What do you mean by pure virtual functions?

A pure virtual member function is a member function that the base class forces derived classes to provide. Normally these member functions have no implementation. Pure virtual functions are equated to zero.
class Shape { public: virtual void draw() = 0; };

What is polymorphism? Explain with an example?

"Poly" means "many" and "morph" means "form". Polymorphism is the ability of an object (or reference) to assume (be replaced by) or become many different forms of object.
Example: function overloading, function overriding, virtual functions. Another example can be a plus ‘+’ sign, used for adding two integers or for using it to concatenate two strings.

How can you quickly find the number of elements stored in a a) static array b) dynamic array ?
Why is it difficult to store linked list in an array?
How can you find the nodes with repetetive data in a linked list?

Write a prog to accept a given string in any order and flash error if any of the character is different. For example : If abc is the input then abc, bca, cba, cab bac are acceptable but aac or bcd are unacceptable.
Write out a function that prints out all the permutations of a string. For example, abc would give you abc, acb, bac, bca, cab, cba. You can assume that all the characters will be unique.

What’s the output of the following program? Why?

#include 
main()
{
 typedef union
 {
  int a;
  char b[10];
  float c;
 }
 Union;
 
 Union x,y = {100};
 x.a = 50;
 strcpy(x.b,\"hello\");
 x.c = 21.50;
 
 printf(\"Union x : %d %s %f \n\",x.a,x.b,x.c );
 printf(\"Union y :%d %s%f \n\",y.a,y.b,y.c);
}

Given inputs X, Y, Z and operations | and & (meaning bitwise OR and AND, respectively)
What is output equal to in
output = (X & Y) | (X & Z) | (Y & Z)

Why are arrays usually processed with for loop?

The real power of arrays comes from their facility of using an index variable to traverse the array, accessing each element with the same expression a[i]. All the is needed to make this work is a iterated statement in which the variable i serves as a counter, incrementing from 0 to a.length -1. That is exactly what a loop does.

What is an HTML tag?

Answer: An HTML tag is a syntactical construct in the HTML language that abbreviates specific instructions to be executed when the HTML script is loaded into a Web browser. It is like a method in Java, a function in C++, a procedure in Pascal, or a subroutine in FORTRAN.

Explain which of the following declarations will compile and what will be constant - a pointer or the value pointed at: * const char *
* char const *
* char * const

Note: Ask the candidate whether the first declaration is pointing to a string or a single character. Both explanations are correct, but if he says that it’s a single character pointer, ask why a whole string is initialized as char* in C++. If he says this is a string declaration, ask him to declare a pointer to a single character. Competent candidates should not have problems pointing out why const char* can be both a character and a string declaration, incompetent ones will come up with invalid reasons.

You’re given a simple code for the class BankCustomer. Write the following functions:
* Copy constructor
* = operator overload
* == operator overload
* + operator overload (customers’ balances should be added up, as an example of joint account between husband and wife)

Note:Anyone confusing assignment and equality operators should be dismissed from the interview. The applicant might make a mistake of passing by value, not by reference. The candidate might also want to return a pointer, not a new object, from the addition operator. Slightly hint that you’d like the value to be changed outside the function, too, in the first case. Ask him whether the statement customer3 = customer1 + customer2 would work in the second case.

What problems might the following macro bring to the application?

#define sq(x) x*x

Anything wrong with this code?
T *p = new T[10];
delete p;

Everything is correct, Only the first element of the array will be deleted”, The entire array will be deleted, but only the first element destructor will be called.

Anything wrong with this code?
T *p = 0;
delete p;

Yes, the program will crash in an attempt to delete a null pointer.

How do you decide which integer type to use?

It depends on our requirement. When we are required an integer to be stored in 1 byte (means less than or equal to 255) we use short int, for 2 bytes we use int, for 8 bytes we use long int.

A char is for 1-byte integers, a short is for 2-byte integers, an int is generally a 2-byte or 4-byte integer (though not necessarily), a long is a 4-byte integer, and a long long is a 8-byte integer.

What’s the best way to declare and define global variables?

The best way to declare global variables is to declare them after including all the files so that it can be used in all the functions.

What does extern mean in a function declaration?

Using extern in a function declaration we can make a function such that it can used outside the file in which it is defined.

An extern variable, function definition, or declaration also makes the described variable or function usable by the succeeding part of the current source file. This declaration does not replace the definition. The declaration is used to describe the variable that is externally defined.

If a declaration for an identifier already exists at file scope, any extern declaration of the same identifier found within a block refers to that same object. If no other declaration for the identifier exists at file scope, the identifier has external linkage.

What can I safely assume about the initial values of variables which are not explicitly initialized?

It depends on complier which may assign any garbage value to a variable if it is not initialized.

courtesy:DEVFYI - Developer Resource - FYI