Data Structures - Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of the following is a linear data structure?
a) Linked list
b) Graph
c) Tree
d) Trie
2. What does a node in a singly linked list contain?
a) Data and two pointers
b) Only data
c) Data and one pointer
d) Data and three pointers
3. In a singly linked list, the last node points to:
a) The first node
b) NULL
c) Itself
d) Random node
4. Which linked list allows traversal in both directions?
a) Singly linked list
b) Circular list
c) Doubly linked list
d) Header list
5. Circular linked list has the last node pointing to:
a) NULL
b) Head
c) Middle
d) Any node
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Data Structures - Multiple Choice Questions
6. In linked lists, memory is allocated:
a) Sequentially
b) Randomly
c) Dynamically
d) Continuously
7. Which pointer in doubly linked list points to the previous node?
a) forward
b) next
c) prev
d) back
8. Which of these operations is easiest with linked list compared to arrays?
a) Traversal
b) Insertion
c) Searching
d) Sorting
9. What is garbage collection in context of linked lists?
a) Allocating memory
b) Collecting unused memory
c) Deleting data
d) Updating node
10. Which of the following is not a type of linked list?
a) Singly
b) Doubly
c) Circular
d) Binary
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Data Structures - Multiple Choice Questions
11. Which of the following applications uses linked list?
a) Polynomial addition
b) Stacks
c) Queues
d) All of these
12. What is header linked list?
a) First node stores data
b) Last node stores address of header
c) Special node at beginning
d) List with extra memory
13. To traverse a linked list, we use:
a) loop
b) recursion
c) iteration
d) any of these
14. Time complexity for searching in singly linked list is:
a) O(1)
b) O(log n)
c) O(n)
d) O(n log n)
15. Which of these is a non-linear data structure?
a) Linked list
b) Stack
c) Tree
d) Queue
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Data Structures - Multiple Choice Questions
16. How many pointers does a node in a doubly linked list have?
a) 0
b) 1
c) 2
d) 3
17. Insertion at beginning in singly linked list is done in:
a) O(n)
b) O(log n)
c) O(1)
d) O(n^2)
18. Which is used to implement Linked Stack?
a) Queue
b) Linked List
c) Array
d) Tree
19. Which is an advantage of linked list over arrays?
a) Easy to search
b) Memory reuse
c) Easy access
d) Dynamic size
20. Which of the following is a disadvantage of singly linked list?
a) Requires extra memory
b) Slow search
c) No backward traversal
d) All of the above
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Data Structures - Multiple Choice Questions
21. How do you delete a node from a singly linked list?
a) Modify previous node pointer
b) Jump to next
c) Directly remove
d) None
22. In linked list, to insert in the middle, we need:
a) Last node
b) Middle node
c) Previous node
d) Head
23. What is required to traverse a circular linked list?
a) Stop when NULL
b) Stop after n nodes
c) Stop when back to head
d) Infinite loop
24. What is the head in a linked list?
a) Middle node
b) Last node
c) First node
d) NULL
25. How to check if a singly linked list is circular?
a) Last node points to NULL
b) Next of head is NULL
c) Loop until node points to head
d) None
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Data Structures - Multiple Choice Questions
26. Which is better for memory utilization?
a) Array
b) Linked list
c) Stack
d) Heap
27. Which pointer is null in the first node of doubly linked list?
a) next
b) back
c) prev
d) link
28. Which of the following is not true about linked list?
a) It uses dynamic memory
b) Fixed size
c) Elements not stored contiguously
d) Grows in runtime
29. To access the ith element in a singly linked list, time complexity is:
a) O(1)
b) O(log n)
c) O(n)
d) O(n^2)
30. Linked list is suitable for:
a) Static memory
b) Sequential access
c) Large data operations
d) All
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Data Structures - Multiple Choice Questions
31. Which type of list helps in easy traversal from both ends?
a) Singly
b) Doubly
c) Circular
d) None
32. What happens if free memory is not handled properly?
a) Memory leak
b) Crash
c) Garbage build-up
d) All
33. To insert a node after a given node, you must:
a) Update data
b) Update link of next node
c) Update current and next node
d) All
34. Which is better for implementing dynamic stacks?
a) Arrays
b) Linked lists
c) Trees
d) Vectors
35. Which of these does not require backward traversal?
a) Undo operations
b) Doubly linked list
c) Stack
d) Editor navigation
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Data Structures - Multiple Choice Questions
36. When would you prefer a linked list over array?
a) Static data size
b) Frequent insert/delete
c) Random access
d) Sorting
37. Which one is used to free memory occupied by deleted node?
a) delete()
b) free()
c) remove()
d) clear()
38. Whats an advantage of header linked list?
a) Easy traversal
b) Decreases memory
c) Simplifies operations
d) Avoids head NULL
39. Which application uses linked queues?
a) Web server requests
b) Reversing string
c) Tower of Hanoi
d) Tree traversal
40. Which type of list allows looping structure naturally?
a) Circular
b) Doubly
c) Header
d) Stack
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Data Structures - Multiple Choice Questions
41. If head = NULL in a linked list, it means:
a) List is empty
b) One node exists
c) List is full
d) Head is end
42. Linked list is best used when:
a) Need random access
b) Static memory
c) Insertions/deletions frequent
d) None
43. What is used to represent NULL in C?
a) 0
b) NULL
c) nullptr
d) None
44. Which of the following is true for dynamic memory?
a) Fixed size
b) Memory at compile time
c) Allocation during runtime
d) Cannot free
45. What is an application of circular linked list?
a) Polynomial operations
b) CPU scheduling
c) Tower of Hanoi
d) Graph traversal
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Data Structures - Multiple Choice Questions
46. What is the purpose of a dummy header node?
a) Store data
b) Represent end
c) Simplify edge cases
d) None
47. Which function allocates memory in C?
a) calloc()
b) malloc()
c) realloc()
d) All
48. What happens when you access a freed pointer?
a) Error
b) Garbage value
c) Crash
d) All
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Data Structures - Multiple Choice Questions
Answer Key
1. a
2. c
3. b
4. c
5. b
6. c
7. c
8. b
9. b
10. d
11. d
12. c
13. d
14. c
15. c
16. c
17. c
18. b
19. d
20. d
21. a
22. c
23. c
24. c
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Data Structures - Multiple Choice Questions
25. c
26. b
27. c
28. b
29. c
30. c
31. b
32. d
33. d
34. b
35. c
36. b
37. b
38. c
39. a
40. a
41. a
42. c
43. b
44. c
45. b
46. c
47. d
48. d
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