Data Structures Interview Questions - Part 1
Answer:
Data Structures are a method of structured or organized data storage which is easier to manage. Data usually has 2 aspects – the definition and its implementation. Data structures make sure they keep both aspects separate. The definition is made available for different implementations for different programs or usages.
What are the advantages of using Data Structures?
Answer:
Data structures help store the information in a structured way. This makes data storage and retrieval much easier than conventional sequential storage. Data structures keep the data away from its implementation.
What are the basic operations possible in Data Structures?
Answer:
Every data structure allows some basic operations such as inserting, deleting, updating, traversing, searching and sorting. Insert operations can be allowed at the beginning, end, or middle of the data structure based on the type of data structure. Deletions can also be allowed at the beginning, end, or middle of the data structure. Even though some data structures such as stacks and queues are very strict about inserting and deleting information, traversing and sorting the data structures work more or less similar for all. Traversing and sorting are possible only because the data is stored sequentially.
What are data types?
Answer:
Data types define what kind of information is stored in a variable or data member. There are primitive data types such as integer, character and Boolean and there are complex data types such as arrays data structures. Most programming languages require the variables to be declared before they are accessed.
What is a data object?
Answer:
Data objects are the entities that actually contain the information. Data objects are the implementation of the data structures defined by the programmer. Data objects can access the methods and information stored in the data structure to store, process, and retrieve information.
What are the different types of Data Structures?
Answer:
Data Structures can be categorized in many ways, though broadly, they can be categorized as Non-Linear and Linear data structures. Linear data structures are those that are sequential, like lists, arrays, stacks, and queues. They are stored and can be accessed sequentially.
Explain the Linear Data Structures.
Answer:
When information is stored in a sequential manner, it is easy to store and manage. Data structures, stored in order or sequentially, are called linear data structures. Arrays, Lists, queues, Stack, and even files are stored sequentially. While arrays and other data structures can be accessed directly with the position marker, files are accessed sequentially.
Explain the non-linear data structures.
Answer:
Non-linear information implies that the information does not follow a specific pattern for storage. But they can be related in other ways. Hierarchical information such as tree patterns or geographical information that depends on positions can never be sequential.
What is a node?
Answer:
A node is the basic form of data structure. It basically consists of a member variable that holds the value and the address of the next node. The address part will be null for the last element of the data structure
What are Primitive Datatypes?
Answer:
Data types provide more information about the data. Most of the programs allow creating new data types which are implemented as enumerations and the values become the constants in the program.
Eg. There are 7 primitive data types: string, number, big int, boolean, undefined, symbol, and null.
