Data Structures & Algorithms – 50 MCQs
1. Which data structure works on the principle of FIFO?
A. Stack
B. Queue
C. Tree
D. Graph
2. What is the time complexity of binary search?
A. O(n)
B. O(log n)
C. O(n log n)
D. O(1)
3. Which of the following is NOT a stable sorting algorithm?
A. Merge Sort
B. Bubble Sort
C. Quick Sort
D. Insertion Sort
4. Which data structure uses LIFO?
A. Queue
B. Tree
C. Stack
D. Graph
5. Which tree is always height-balanced?
A. Binary Search Tree
B. AVL Tree
C. Heap
D. B-Tree
6. Which hashing technique resolves collision by chaining?
A. Open addressing
B. Linear probing
C. Separate chaining
D. Double hashing
7. The worst-case time complexity of Quick Sort is:
A. O(log n)
B. O(n)
C. O(n log n)
D. O(n²)
8. BFS uses which data structure?
A. Stack
B. Queue
C. Tree
D. Graph
9. DFS uses which data structure (implicitly or explicitly)?
A. Queue
B. Stack
C. Heap
D. List
10. What is the height of a complete binary tree with n nodes?
A. log n
B. n
C. n log n
D. √n
11. Which of the following is not a linear data structure?
A. Linked list
B. Array
C. Tree
D. Stack
12. Which structure is used in function call management (call stack)?
A. Queue
B. Heap
C. Stack
D. Graph
13. In a min-heap, the smallest element is stored at:
A. Last node
B. Root
C. Middle
D. Any leaf
14. Which sorting algorithm has the best average-case efficiency?
A. Bubble sort
B. Quick Sort
C. Insertion Sort
D. Selection Sort
15. Which data structure is used for implementing recursion?
A. Queue
B. Array
C. Stack
D. Heap
16. A full binary tree with n internal nodes has how many leaves?
A. n
B. n + 1
C. 2n
D. 2n + 1
17. Which of the following traversals is in-order for a BST?
A. Sorted order
B. Reverse sorted
C. Random
D. Level order
18. What is the time complexity of inserting an element in a linked list at the
beginning?
A. O(1)
B. O(log n)
C. O(n)
D. O(n log n)
19. Which tree always remains perfectly balanced?
A. Splay Tree
B. Red-Black Tree
C. AVL Tree
D. Binary Search Tree
20. Which algorithm is used to find the shortest path in a weighted graph?
A. DFS
B. BFS
C. Dijkstra’s algorithm
D. Kruskal’s algorithm
21. Which algorithm is used for Minimum Spanning Tree?
A. Dijkstra
B. Kruskal
C. BFS
D. A*
22. Which of the following is not an in-place sorting algorithm?
A. Quick Sort
B. Bubble Sort
C. Merge Sort
D. Heap Sort
23. The worst-case time complexity of Bubble Sort is:
A. O(n)
B. O(log n)
C. O(n²)
D. O(n log n)
24. Which tree traversal uses a queue?
A. Preorder
B. Inorder
C. Postorder
D. Level order
25. Which of these is used to detect a cycle in a graph?
A. BFS
B. DFS
C. Dijkstra
D. Prim’s
26. Which of these is a divide-and-conquer algorithm?
A. Insertion Sort
B. Merge Sort
C. Selection Sort
D. Bubble Sort
27. A priority queue is usually implemented using:
A. Stack
B. Queue
C. Heap
D. Linked list
28. Which of these does NOT require contiguous memory?
A. Array
B. Linked List
C. Matrix
D. String
29. Which of these can be used to implement a graph?
A. Adjacency list
B. Adjacency matrix
C. Both A and B
D. None
30. What is the space complexity of Merge Sort?
A. O(1)
B. O(log n)
C. O(n)
D. O(n log n)
31. Which of these has the fastest lookup time on average?
A. Array
B. Linked List
C. Hash Table
D. Stack
32. Which algorithm is used for topological sorting?
A. BFS/DFS
B. Dijkstra
C. Prim
D. Kruskal
33. Which operation is fastest in a linked list as compared to an array?
A. Access by index
B. Searching
C. Insertion at beginning
D. None
34. The number of edges in a complete graph with n vertices is:
A. n
B. n²
C. n(n−1)/2
D. 2n
35. Which of these algorithms is comparison-based?
A. Counting sort
B. Radix sort
C. Bucket sort
D. Merge sort
36. In a BST, searching takes:
A. O(1)
B. O(log n) average
C. O(n log n)
D. O(n²)
37. Which data structure is used in Dijkstra’s algorithm?
A. Stack
B. Queue
C. Priority queue
D. Tree
38. Which algorithm is optimal for finding MST in dense graphs?
A. Kruskal
B. Prim (with adjacency matrix)
C. Dijkstra
D. BFS
39. Which tree ensures O(log n) time for search, insert, delete?
A. BST
B. AVL Tree
C. Graph
D. Hash Table
40. Time complexity for push() in a stack using array:
A. O(1)
B. O(n)
C. O(log n)
D. O(n log n)
41. A graph that has no cycles is known as:
A. DAG
B. Complete graph
C. Bipartite graph
D. Tree
42. Which is used to evaluate postfix expressions?
A. Queue
B. Stack
C. Heap
D. Tree
43. The maximum number of nodes in a height h binary tree is:
A. h
B. 2^h
C. 2^(h+1) − 1
D. h²
44. Which algorithm is used for scheduling problems?
A. BFS
B. Kruskal
C. Greedy algorithms
D. Dynamic programming
45. Which of these is NOT a greedy algorithm?
A. Dijkstra
B. Kruskal
C. Huffman coding
D. Merge Sort
46. The best-case time of Quick Sort occurs when:
A. Pivot is smallest
B. Pivot is largest
C. Pivot is median
D. Pivot is random
47. Which data structure is useful for undo operations?
A. Queue
B. Array
C. Stack
D. Heap
48. The minimum height of a red–black tree with n nodes is:
A. log n
B. 2 log n
C. n
D. √n
49. What is the in-order successor of a node in BST?
A. Maximum of right subtree
B. Minimum of right subtree
C. Root
D. Parent
50. Which sorting algorithm is best for nearly sorted data?
A. Bubble Sort
B. Merge Sort
C. Insertion Sort
D. Quick Sort
MCQs with Answer Key
1. B
2. B
3. C
4. C
5. B
6. C
7. D
8. B
9. B
10. A
11. C
12. C
13. B
14. B
15. C
16. B
17. A
18. A
19. C
20. C
21. B
22. C
23. C
24. D
25. B
26. B
27. C
28. B
29. C
30. C
31. C
32. A
33. C
34. C
35. D
36. B
37. C
38. B
39. B
40. A
41. A
42. B
43. C
44. C
45. D
46. C
47. C
48. A
49. B
50. C
