after a 30 page brutal war with seunthomas, a legend on the programing section (no disrespect implied or intended) I have observed that loads of programmers here are very good at what they do. However there seems to be a dearth in "academic" knowledge of the fundamentals of our profession. To this end I would like to use this thread to gauge our knowledge of the key fundamentals of computing. I have access to a set of questions that left me gasping for air when I tried to solve them. I would like to share these questions with other geek heads here for us to try and solve them while explaining our solutions. Perhaps we can develop the ability to solve "academic" computing questions which are crucial as multinational software Corporations throw these kind of questions to their recruits. All of thee questions are multiple choice questions and while I do have the answers, I do not have explanations of how the answers were arrived at. So the key task here is not the just to mention the answer but to explain the reasoning behind your choice.

If I get 20 views or 5 responses then I will start posting questions and I will really be glad to rub minds with y'all super geeks

*driver, park me here!* ... *books space* ...
Watching the coders....

OK. I am here

Well since this is not about arguments, then fire away. Are we allowed to think outside the box? Cos most times programming questions are restrictive and tend not to look at all possibilities.....

*Spreads mat*

Oya, continue

airsaylongcon, I think you have enough people following this thread now so can you start )

For the record, I did not study computer science, picked up my skills from the "streets". So i generally find this kind of thread interesting.

This dude must be out of data or something, just called your passengers into the bus and disappeared.

Ok, let me park here

....following

Waoh! I'm sorry guys I've been stuck with a lot of work at my desk this morning. I will have a lunch break at 1pm then I can start firing missiles. Please endure with me

OK warm up with this. Remember that these are exam questions meant to be answered in approximately 2 minutes. Without the use of a compiler or stuff like that

Consider the following function
double p (double b, unsigned int e)
{
if (e==0)
return 1.0;
else
if (even(e))
return p(b*b, e/2);
else
return p(b*b, e/2)*b;
}

How many multiplication are executed as a result of the call p(5.0, 12). Divisions SHOULD NOT be included in this total

By my calculation: 6.

My working.
12 divide repeatedly by 2 gives:
12,6,3,1,0. Including the first argument,12.
The first 2 even numbers generates 1 multiplication each, thats 2 .
The odd number 3,generates 2 multiplications.
1 generates 2.
0 generates no multiplication.
Total=6.

My brain has encountered a cyclic redundancy plus stackoverflow error. . . .

asalimpo:
By my calculation: 6.

My working.
12 divide repeatedly by 2 gives:
12,6,3,1,0. Including the first argument,12.
The first 2 even numbers generates 1 multiplication each, thats 2 .
The odd number 3,generates 2 multiplications.
1 generates 2.
0 generates no multiplication.
Total=6.

The options available are 12,9,8,6,5

@airsaylongcon drop something hotter....I'll never stress myself figuring this out.....when I can just disobey you and increment a counter

Drop something that we can't solve easily even if we use a compiling compiler

This one is deep. Old school Pascal programming.

var a, b, c :integer;
read (c) ;
a:=1;
b:=1;
while a <10 do
begin
b=b*a;
a=a+1;
If a = c then exit
end


For the fragment of code above, which of the following statements about variables a and b must be true after execution of the fragment?

A) (b=(c-1)!) AND (a>=c)
B) (b=9!) AND (a=10)
C) (b=10!) AND (a=10)
D) ((b=10!) AND (a=10)) OR ((b=(c-1)!) AND (a=c))
E) ((b=9!) AND (a>=10)) OR ((b=(c-1)!) AND (a=c))

Whatabout those who dont use archaic /unpopular languages?
The language syntax alone will be a barrier to understanding the problem.

@danidee
Not every1 will cheat. Some want to learn.
@op
keep it graduated,from simplest to hardest. So that posters can attempt,correct and learn.

O boy, make una dey dilute these codes small small now, there are NOOBS and OLD-PEOPLE (like me) here.
My brain is running on 4GB SDRAM, with 1GB primary hard-drive - how can I possibly comprehend stuffs like: ((b=9!) AND (a>=10)) OR ((b=(c-1)!) AND (a=c))?

dhtml18:
O boy, make una dey dilute these codes small small now, there are NOOBS and OLD-PEOPLE (like me) here.
My brain is running on 4GB SDRAM, with 1GB primary hard-drive - how can I possibly comprehend stuffs like: ((b=9!) AND (a>=10)) OR ((b=(c-1)!) AND (a=c))?

this no be code matter at all. That's maths, factorials. I pity, the candidates that had to compute these under 2 minutes!

asalimpo:

Whatabout those who dont use archaic /unpopular languages?
The language syntax alone will be a barrier to understanding the problem.

@danidee
Not every1 will cheat. Some want to learn.
@op
keep it graduated,from simplest to hardest. So that posters can attempt,correct and learn.

All of them look hard to me O. But I will try and pick and mix.

As regards the language, I can "translate" it into a more modern language

Okay so here's the translation in C++

int a, b, c;
cin>>c ;
a=1;
b=1;
while a <10 do
{
b=b*a;
a=a+1;
If a == c then exit
}

For the fragment of code above, which of the following statements about variables a and b must be true after execution of the fragment?

A) (b=(c-1)!) AND (a>=c)
B) (b=9!) AND (a=10)
C) (b=10!) AND (a=10)
D) ((b=10!) AND (a=10)) OR ((b=(c-1)!) AND (a=c))
E) ((b=9!) AND (a>=10)) OR ((b=(c-1)!) AND (a=c))

dhtml18:
O boy, make una dey dilute these codes small small now, there are NOOBS and OLD-PEOPLE (like me) here.
My brain is running on 4GB SDRAM, with 1GB primary hard-drive - how can I possibly comprehend stuffs like: ((b=9!) AND (a>=10)) OR ((b=(c-1)!) AND (a=c))?

All those na SYMBOLOGY now. Just basic AND & OR in programming mixed with factorial.

^^Basic keh? our own (dhtml18 and the noobs) don finish for here
Wait, has anyone seen guru1 and seunthomas? They are supposed to be participating on this thread now?

Still waiting for the real questions..

And these are fake questions?

In java.

 

 int a,b,c;
b=1; a=1;
 c = Integer.parseInt(scanner.read());
 //scanner is instance of //java.util.Scanner
 while(a<10)
  {
 b*=a;  
 a++;
 if(a==c) break;
  }
 

my choice is E. Will defend or edit later.

seunthomas:
Still waiting for the real questions..

And here he is, i love this dude, he does not dissapoint,
o yeah, @op, where are the real questions? All those factorials above are just to scare NOOBS (like me).
The phd grandmaster is now here to tackle all the "real questions" ASAP.