Sorting Algorithms MCQs

By: Prof. Dr. Fazal Rehman Shamil | Last updated: September 20, 2024

What is the primary goal of sorting algorithms?
A) To compress data
B) To organize data in a specific order
C) To search for elements
D) To encrypt data
Answer: B) To organize data in a specific order

Which sorting algorithm has the best average-case time complexity?
A) Bubble Sort
B) Quick Sort
C) Insertion Sort
D) Selection Sort
Answer: B) Quick Sort

What is the worst-case time complexity of Bubble Sort?
A) O(n log n)
B) O(n^2)
C) O(n)
D) O(log n)
Answer: B) O(n^2)

Which sorting algorithm is based on the divide-and-conquer strategy?
A) Selection Sort
B) Merge Sort
C) Insertion Sort
D) Heap Sort
Answer: B) Merge Sort

In which sorting algorithm is the largest element repeatedly swapped to the end of the list?
A) Selection Sort
B) Insertion Sort
C) Quick Sort
D) Bubble Sort
Answer: D) Bubble Sort

What is the time complexity of Merge Sort in the worst case?
A) O(n)
B) O(n log n)
C) O(n^2)
D) O(log n)
Answer: B) O(n log n)

Which sorting algorithm is generally the fastest for large datasets?
A) Insertion Sort
B) Merge Sort
C) Quick Sort
D) Bubble Sort
Answer: C) Quick Sort

What is the primary disadvantage of using Selection Sort?
A) High memory usage
B) Poor performance on large lists
C) Complexity of implementation
D) It is unstable
Answer: B) Poor performance on large lists

Which sorting algorithm maintains the relative order of equal elements?
A) Quick Sort
B) Selection Sort
C) Merge Sort
D) Heap Sort
Answer: C) Merge Sort

What is the space complexity of Merge Sort?
A) O(1)
B) O(n)
C) O(n log n)
D) O(log n)
Answer: B) O(n)

In which algorithm does the pivot element play a critical role?
A) Bubble Sort
B) Quick Sort
C) Selection Sort
D) Merge Sort
Answer: B) Quick Sort

Which sorting algorithm is the most efficient for nearly sorted data?
A) Quick Sort
B) Bubble Sort
C) Insertion Sort
D) Heap Sort
Answer: C) Insertion Sort

What is the average-case time complexity of Insertion Sort?
A) O(n log n)
B) O(n^2)
C) O(n)
D) O(log n)
Answer: B) O(n^2)

Which of the following sorting algorithms is in-place?
A) Merge Sort
B) Quick Sort
C) Bubble Sort
D) All of the above
Answer: B) Quick Sort

What type of sorting algorithm is Heap Sort?
A) Comparison-based
B) Non-comparison-based
C) Stable
D) Adaptive
Answer: A) Comparison-based

In Quick Sort, what is the role of the pivot?
A) To partition the array
B) To sort the array
C) To merge two arrays
D) To perform linear searches
Answer: A) To partition the array

What is the best-case time complexity of Insertion Sort?
A) O(n^2)
B) O(n log n)
C) O(n)
D) O(log n)
Answer: C) O(n)

Which sorting algorithm is characterized by dividing the array into subarrays and sorting them independently?
A) Quick Sort
B) Merge Sort
C) Bubble Sort
D) Selection Sort
Answer: B) Merge Sort

What is the primary advantage of Heap Sort?
A) It is stable
B) It uses less memory
C) It is an in-place algorithm
D) It is easy to implement
Answer: C) It is an in-place algorithm

Which algorithm is not a comparison-based sorting algorithm?
A) Radix Sort
B) Quick Sort
C) Merge Sort
D) Bubble Sort
Answer: A) Radix Sort

In which scenario is Selection Sort most efficient?
A) When the dataset is small
B) When the dataset is large
C) When the dataset is mostly sorted
D) When the dataset contains many duplicates
Answer: A) When the dataset is small

What is the worst-case time complexity of Quick Sort?
A) O(n log n)
B) O(n^2)
C) O(n)
D) O(log n)
Answer: B) O(n^2)

Which sorting algorithm is known for its simplicity and ease of implementation?
A) Merge Sort
B) Quick Sort
C) Bubble Sort
D) Heap Sort
Answer: C) Bubble Sort

What is the time complexity of Counting Sort?
A) O(n^2)
B) O(n log n)
C) O(n)
D) O(log n)
Answer: C) O(n)

Which algorithm is not stable?
A) Insertion Sort
B) Merge Sort
C) Quick Sort
D) Bubble Sort
Answer: C) Quick Sort

What is the main disadvantage of Bubble Sort?
A) It is difficult to implement
B) It has a high time complexity
C) It requires extra memory
D) It is not stable
Answer: B) It has a high time complexity

What type of data does Radix Sort operate on?
A) Integer data
B) Character data
C) Floating-point data
D) All of the above
Answer: A) Integer data

Which sorting algorithm divides the data into buckets and sorts them individually?
A) Radix Sort
B) Merge Sort
C) Heap Sort
D) Quick Sort
Answer: A) Radix Sort

In which sorting algorithm is the data divided into halves recursively?
A) Insertion Sort
B) Quick Sort
C) Merge Sort
D) Selection Sort
Answer: C) Merge Sort

What is the key advantage of Merge Sort over Quick Sort?
A) Faster execution time
B) Lower space complexity
C) It is always stable
D) It has a better average-case performance
Answer: C) It is always stable

Which sorting algorithm repeatedly selects the smallest element from an unsorted portion?
A) Bubble Sort
B) Insertion Sort
C) Selection Sort
D) Quick Sort
Answer: C) Selection Sort

What is the time complexity of Shell Sort?
A) O(n log n)
B) O(n^2)
C) O(n^(3/2))
D) O(log n)
Answer: C) O(n^(3/2))

Which of the following is a characteristic of Heap Sort?
A) It is not an in-place algorithm
B) It is stable
C) It uses a binary heap data structure
D) It is based on the divide-and-conquer strategy
Answer: C) It uses a binary heap data structure

What is the primary purpose of the partitioning step in Quick Sort?
A) To combine sorted arrays
B) To rearrange elements around a pivot
C) To select the next pivot
D) To merge two halves
Answer: B) To rearrange elements around a pivot

Which of the following algorithms has a time complexity of O(n^2) in the worst case?
A) Merge Sort
B) Heap Sort
C) Quick Sort
D) Selection Sort
Answer: D) Selection Sort

What is the primary advantage of using Counting Sort?
A) It works on any data type
B) It is a non-comparison-based algorithm
C) It is stable
D) It has low memory requirements
Answer: B) It is a non-comparison-based algorithm

In which sorting algorithm does the input size significantly affect the time complexity?
A) Merge Sort
B) Quick Sort
C) Insertion Sort
D) Bubble Sort
Answer: C) Insertion Sort

Which sorting algorithm is best suited for sorting linked lists?
A) Merge Sort
B) Quick Sort
C) Bubble Sort
D) Heap Sort
Answer: A) Merge Sort

 

Data Structures MCQs

Basic Concepts

1. Introduction to Data Structures
   • Abstract Data Types (ADT) MCQs
2. Complexity Analysis MCQs
   • Time complexity MCQs
   • Space complexity MCQs
   • Big O, Big Ω, Big Θ notations MCQs

Linear Data Structures MCQs

1. Arrays MCQs
   • One-dimensional arrays MCQs
   • Multi-dimensional arrays MCQs
   • Operations: traversal, insertion, deletion MCQs
2. Linked Lists MCQs
   • Singly linked list MCQs
   • Doubly linked list MCQs
   • Circular linked list MCQs
3. Stacks MCQs
   • Stack operations (push, pop, peek) MCQs
   • Applications of stacks (expression evaluation, recursion) MCQs
4. Queues MCQs
   • Queue operations (enqueue, dequeue, front, rear) MCQs
   • Types: Simple queue, circular queue, priority queue, deque MCQs

Non-Linear Data Structures MCQs

1. Trees MCQs
   • Binary trees MCQs
   • Binary Search Trees (BST) MCQs
   • AVL Trees MCQs
   • B-trees and B+ trees MCQs
   • Tree traversal methods (in-order, pre-order, post-order) MCQs
2. Heaps MCQs
   • Min-heap MCQs
   • Max-heap MCQs
   • Heap operations (insertion, deletion, heapify) MCQs
   • Applications of heaps (priority queues, heap sort) MCQs
3. Graphs MCQs
   • Graph representation (adjacency matrix, adjacency list) MCQs
   • Graph traversal algorithms (DFS, BFS) MCQs
   • Shortest path algorithms (Dijkstra’s, Bellman-Ford) MCQs
   • Minimum Spanning Tree (Kruskal’s, Prim’s) MCQs

Hashing MCQs MCQs

1. Hash Tables
   • Hash functions MCQs
   • Collision resolution techniques (chaining, open addressing) MCQs
   • Applications of hashing MCQs

Sorting and Searching Algorithms MCQs 

1. Sorting Algorithms MCQs
   • Bubble sort MCQs
   • Selection sort MCQs
   • Insertion sort MCQs
   • Merge sort MCQs
   • Quick sort MCQs
   • Heap sort MCQs
2. Searching Algorithms MCQs
   • Linear search MCQs
   • Binary search MCQs
   • Interpolation search MCQs

Miscellaneous

1. Memory Management in data structures MCQs
   • Dynamic memory allocation MCQs
   • Garbage collection MCQs
2. String Manipulation Algorithms MCQs
   • Pattern matching (KMP, Rabin-Karp) MCQs
   • String hashing MCQs

1. Data Structures MCQs 1
2. Data Structures MCQs 2
3. Data Structures MCQs 3
4. Data Structures MCQs 4
5. Data Structures MCQs 5
6. Stacks Solved MCQs
7. Queues MCQs
8. pointer mcqs
9. Array MCQs