End-Term Exam
Linear Algebra (MAT-1001/ CS-2210)
Course Instructor : Sagar Shrivastava
Maximum Marks : 100
Time : 120 minutes + ε
Name: Ashoka ID:
Instructions :
• Spend the first 5 minutes going through the instructions and reading the questions. If there are
any doubts or clarifications, raise your hand, and one of the invigilators would come to you for
assistance.
• Attempt as many of the following questions as you can.
• This exam carries a weightage of 40 marks in your overall score. This paper is for 100 points,
which would be scaled to 50, of which the best 40 would be considered.
• You are permitted to assume the solutions of previous exercises without actually solving them in
order to solve the subsequent ones.
• Use of any electronic device including mobile, laptop, tablet, supercomputers, AI, missiles, etc
would be considered cheating.
• We are currently living in a time where not only humans, but also phones are smart. Place your
smart phone on airplane mode on the desk in front of you, and if you need to use the restroom in
the meantime, leave your smartphone where it is as you attend to your needs.
• Any sort of communication between fellow exam takers, be it asking for a pen, eraser,compass,
telescope, water bottle, their soul, their answer sheets etc is all considered unacceptable, and would
be severely penalised.
• Any answer scripts that appear to be copied from each other will face severe penalties, regardless
of the source of the copying. Even if two answer scripts unintentionally appear similar, it is of
utmost importance that you are capable of defending and explaining your written answers in case
you are interviewed at a later stage.
• To receive full credit, correctly indicate which problem you are solving by writing the question
number.
• I respect you all as adults, who would keep the honor code, and I hope that none of you lose that
respect.
• If the exam seems too difficult and you feel like crying, please do it without disturbing others.
Wishing you the best of luck!!!
1. (2 points each) Indicate true or false. ( A true/false without an explanation is like a smartphone
without internet):
(a) Vectors v1 , v2 , . . . , vn are linearly independent in an n dimensional vector space V if they
span V .
(b) Similar matrices do not need to be square.
(c) If A is a nilpotent operator ( Ak = 0 for some k > 0), then all eigenvalues of A are zero.
(d) If B is the matrix obtained from A by adding a multiple of a row to some other row, then
det B = det A.
End-Term Exam
Linear Algebra (MAT-1001/ CS-2210)
Course Instructor : Sagar Shrivastava
Maximum Marks : 100
Time : 120 minutes + ε
(e) Similar matrices always have the same eigenvalues;
(f) Similar matrices always have the same eigenvectors
(g) Any system of n linear equations in n unknowns has at most one solution.
(h) There exists a square real matrix with no real eigenvalues.
(i) n × n matrix has rank < n, then zero is one of its eigenvalues.
(j) Every matrix over complex numbers has atleast one eigenvector.
1 1 n Fn+1 Fn
2. (a) (3 points) Let A = , then show that A = , where Fn is the nth
1 0 Fn Fn−1
Fibonacci number ( F0 = 0, F1 = 1 and Fn+1 = Fn + Fn−1 .)
(b) (4 points) Show that A has two distinct eigenvalues ϕ1 and ϕ2 , and write the corresponding
eigenvectors.
(c) (3 points) Let A = P −1 DP , where D is diagonal and P is invertible, and use An = P −1 Dn P
to get an explicit formula for Fn .
3. (15 × 4 points) For the following 4 square matrices,
• Compute their RREF and determinant.
• If determinant is non-zero, compute their inverse, otherwise compute their null space.
• Compute their characteristic polynomials, eigenvalues and eigenvectors.
• If they are diagonalisable, write the diagonal matrix that they are similar to, along with the
change of basis matrix. If they are not diagonalisable, write their minimal polynomial.
1 1 −1 1 3 0
(a) 2 −8 7 (c) 0 1 3
6 −13 12 0 0 1
1 2 2 31 61 30
(b) 2 1 2 (d) −23 −45 −22
2 2 1 19 37 18
4. (a) (3+3 points) Let B1 = {v1 , v2 , . . . , vk } and B2 = {w1 , w2 , . . . , wk } be two subsets of a finite
dimensional vector space V over F. Let A1 ( resp. A2 ) be the matrix with rows as [vi ]T (
resp. [wi ]T ). Then show that B1 and B2 span the same subspace of V iff RREF (A1 ) =
RREF (A2 ).
(b) (4 points) How many 2 dimensional subspaces of F3q are there?
