100 MCQs on Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA) with Answers

Arrays and Strings (15 MCQs)

1. What is the time complexity to access an element in an array by index?

o a) O(1) ✔
o b) O(n)
o c) O(log n)
o d) O(n log n)
2. What will be the output of: "abc".substring(1,3) in Java?
o a) ab
o b) bc ✔
o c) ac
o d) abc
3. Which method is used to find the length of an array in Java?
o a) length()
o b) size()
o c) length ✔
o d) count()
4. Which data structure is used to implement strings in most programming languages?
o a) Array ✔
o b) Stack
o c) Queue
o d) Graph
5. What is the output of: "abc" + 1 + 2?
o a) abc3
o b) abc12 ✔
o c) 3abc
o d) 1abc2
6. How is a 2D array represented in memory?
o a) As an array of arrays ✔
o b) As a tree
o c) As a stack
o d) As a graph
7. Which of the following is not a valid string operation?
o a) Concatenation
o b) Slicing
o c) Traversing
o d) Insertion at middle ✔
8. Which of the following is immutable?
o a) String ✔
o b) ArrayList
o c) LinkedList
o d) Queue
9. How do you find duplicates in an array?
o a) HashMap ✔

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 o b) Stack
o c) Queue
o d) Graph
10. Which is faster: array or linked list (for access by index)?
o a) Array ✔
o b) Linked List
o c) Both
o d) None
11. What is the default value of elements in an int array in Java?
o a) -1
o b) 1
o c) 0 ✔
o d) undefined
12. What is the index of first element in an array?
o a) 0 ✔
o b) 1
o c) -1
o d) Depends on language
13. Which method is used to reverse a string in Java?
o a) reverse()
o b) reverseString()
o c) StringBuilder.reverse() ✔
o d) strrev()
14. What data structure would you use for implementing a leaderboard?
o a) ArrayList
o b) Priority Queue ✔
o c) HashMap
o d) Stack
15. Which of the following is best for random access?
o a) Array ✔
o b) Linked List
o c) Stack
o d) Queue

Linked Lists (10 MCQs)

16. Time complexity to insert at head of a singly linked list?

• a) O(n)
• b) O(1) ✔
• c) O(log n)
• d) O(n log n)

17. In a doubly linked list, each node has:

• a) 1 pointer

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• b) 2 pointers ✔
• c) 3 pointers
• d) 0 pointers

18. Circular linked list is:

• a) Last node points to null

• b) Last node points to head ✔
• c) Head points to tail
• d) None

19. How to detect loop in linked list?

• a) DFS
• b) Two pointers (slow/fast) ✔
• c) BFS
• d) Sort

20. Which operation is easiest in singly linked list?

• a) Insertion at head ✔
• b) Deletion at tail
• c) Random access
• d) Sorting

21. What is the time complexity to delete a node at position n in a singly linked list?

• a) O(1)
• b) O(n) ✔
• c) O(n log n)
• d) O(log n)

22. In linked list, memory is:

• a) Contiguous
• b) Non-contiguous ✔
• c) Fixed
• d) None

23. Sentinel node is used:

• a) For recursion
• b) For circular list
• c) To simplify operations ✔
• d) To reduce memory

24. Which is better for memory efficiency?

• a) Array

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• b) Linked List ✔
• c) Queue
• d) Tree

25. Advantage of linked list over array?

• a) Fixed size
• b) Better cache
• c) Dynamic size ✔
• d) Faster indexing

Stacks and Queues (10 MCQs)

26. Which data structure uses LIFO order?

• a) Queue
• b) Stack ✔
• c) Array
• d) Linked List

27. Which of the following uses FIFO order?

• a) Stack
• b) Queue ✔
• c) Tree
• d) Graph

28. What is the time complexity of push operation in stack?

• a) O(1) ✔
• b) O(n)
• c) O(log n)
• d) O(n log n)

29. Which method is used to insert an element in a queue?

• a) pop()
• b) push()
• c) enqueue() ✔
• d) delete()

30. Which method removes element from front of queue?

• a) dequeue() ✔
• b) push()
• c) pop()

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• d) insert()

31. What data structure is used in recursion?

• a) Queue
• b) Stack ✔
• c) Tree
• d) Graph

32. Which data structure can be used to check balanced parentheses?

• a) Array
• b) Stack ✔
• c) Queue
• d) Tree

33. What happens when stack overflows?

• a) Program crashes ✔
• b) Data is lost
• c) Returns 0
• d) Starts again

34. What is the time complexity of dequeue operation in queue?

• a) O(1) ✔
• b) O(n)
• c) O(log n)
• d) O(n log n)

35. Which is used to implement stack?

• a) Array ✔
• b) Graph
• c) Tree
• d) HashMap

Trees (10 MCQs)

36. Which tree traversal is used for expression trees?

• a) Inorder
• b) Postorder ✔
• c) Preorder
• d) Level Order

37. What is the maximum number of nodes in a binary tree of height h?

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• a) 2^h
• b) 2^(h+1) - 1 ✔
• c) h^2
• d) h * log h

38. In a BST, what is the time complexity for search in average case?

• a) O(1)
• b) O(n)
• c) O(log n) ✔
• d) O(n log n)

39. Which traversal gives nodes in sorted order in BST?

• a) Preorder
• b) Inorder ✔
• c) Postorder
• d) Level Order

40. Which data structure is used in level order traversal?

• a) Stack
• b) Queue ✔
• c) Array
• d) Graph

41. What is a complete binary tree?

• a) Every level except last is full ✔

• b) All nodes have 2 children
• c) Every node has 1 child
• d) Tree with only leaf nodes

42. What is height of a tree with only root node?

• a) 0 ✔
• b) 1
• c) -1
• d) 2

43. AVL Tree is a type of:

• a) Binary Tree
• b) Balanced Binary Search Tree ✔
• c) Heap
• d) Graph

44. Which of these is not a tree traversal?

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• a) Inorder
• b) BFS ✔
• c) Preorder
• d) Postorder

45. What is the number of null links in a binary tree with n nodes?

• a) n
• b) n+1 ✔
• c) 2n
• d) 2n+1

Graphs (10 MCQs)

46. Which of the following is used in DFS traversal?

• a) Queue
• b) Stack ✔
• c) Priority Queue
• d) Hash Table

47. Which algorithm works only on Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAG)?

• a) Kruskal
• b) Dijkstra
• c) Topological Sort ✔
• d) Prim

48. Which traversal is used in shortest path (unweighted graph)?

• a) DFS
• b) BFS ✔
• c) Inorder
• d) Preorder

49. What is the time complexity of DFS in adjacency list?

• a) O(V+E) ✔
• b) O(V^2)
• c) O(E^2)
• d) O(log V)

50. Which algorithm is used to detect cycle in directed graph?

• a) DFS ✔
• b) BFS

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• c) Prim
• d) Dijkstra

51. What is a strongly connected graph?

• a) All nodes connected in one direction

• b) There is a path from every node to every other node ✔
• c) All nodes have even degree
• d) None

52. Which algorithm is used in Minimum Spanning Tree?

• a) DFS
• b) Prim’s ✔
• c) BFS
• d) Bellman-Ford

53. Which graph representation is most space efficient for sparse graphs?

• a) Adjacency Matrix
• b) Adjacency List ✔
• c) Incidence Matrix
• d) Edge List

54. In a complete graph with n vertices, how many edges exist?

• a) n
• b) n^2
• c) n(n-1)/2 ✔
• d) n(n+1)/2

55. Which algorithm is used for shortest path with negative weights?

• a) Dijkstra
• b) Bellman-Ford ✔
• c) Prim
• d) Kruskal

Searching & Sorting (10 MCQs)

56. What is the time complexity of binary search?

• a) O(n)
• b) O(log n) ✔
• c) O(1)
• d) O(n log n)

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57. Merge Sort follows which algorithmic paradigm?

• a) Greedy
• b) Divide and Conquer ✔
• c) Dynamic Programming
• d) Backtracking

58. Which sorting algorithm is best for small datasets?

• a) Merge Sort
• b) Quick Sort
• c) Insertion Sort ✔
• d) Radix Sort

59. Which sorting algorithm is not comparison based?

• a) Merge Sort
• b) Radix Sort ✔
• c) Heap Sort
• d) Quick Sort

60. Quick Sort’s worst-case time complexity is:

• a) O(n log n)
• b) O(log n)
• c) O(n^2) ✔
• d) O(n)

61. Heap Sort uses which data structure?

• a) Stack
• b) Heap ✔
• c) Queue
• d) Tree

62. What is the best case of Bubble Sort?

• a) O(n) ✔
• b) O(n log n)
• c) O(n^2)
• d) O(log n)

63. Which of the following is stable sort?

• a) Quick Sort
• b) Heap Sort
• c) Merge Sort ✔
• d) Selection Sort

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 64. What is the average case of Quick Sort?

• a) O(n^2)
• b) O(n log n) ✔
• c) O(n)
• d) O(log n)

65. Which sorting algorithm is best for nearly sorted array?

• a) Merge Sort
• b) Quick Sort
• c) Insertion Sort ✔
• d) Selection Sort

Recursion & Backtracking (10 MCQs)

66. Which of the following problems is solved using backtracking?

• a) Tower of Hanoi
• b) N-Queens ✔
• c) Fibonacci
• d) Binary Search

67. What is the base case in recursion?

• a) The case with the smallest input ✔

• b) The infinite loop
• c) The recursive call
• d) None

68. Which data structure is used in recursion?

• a) Queue
• b) Stack ✔
• c) Linked List
• d) Heap

69. Which is NOT a characteristic of recursion?

• a) Base case
• b) Recursive call
• c) Iterative loop ✔
• d) Stack usage

70. Backtracking algorithm is:

• a) Greedy
• b) Brute-force with optimization ✔
• c) Divide and Conquer
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• d) Dynamic Programming

71. What is the time complexity of recursive Fibonacci?

• a) O(1)
• b) O(log n)
• c) O(n)
• d) O(2^n) ✔

72. Which problem is solved using recursion naturally?

• a) Tree Traversal ✔
• b) Searching
• c) Sorting
• d) Hashing

73. What happens if base case is missing in recursion?

• a) Returns null
• b) Infinite recursion ✔
• c) Compilation error
• d) Stack is unused

74. In recursion, every call is stored in:

• a) Heap
• b) Stack ✔
• c) Queue
• d) Array

75. The function calls itself in:

• a) Iteration
• b) Recursion ✔
• c) Inheritance
• d) Encapsulation

Dynamic Programming (10 MCQs)

76. What is dynamic programming?

• a) Divide & Conquer

• b) Solving problems by combining solutions to subproblems ✔
• c) Sorting method
• d) Recursion without memoization

77. Which of these is a classic DP problem?

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• a) Prim’s Algorithm
• b) Longest Common Subsequence ✔
• c) Binary Search
• d) DFS

78. In DP, overlapping subproblems mean:

• a) Subproblems are unrelated

• b) Same subproblems are solved multiple times ✔
• c) Problem can't be solved
• d) Using recursion

79. What is memoization?

• a) Looping
• b) Storing results of expensive function calls ✔
• c) Searching algorithm
• d) Sorting algorithm

80. Which method is bottom-up DP?

• a) Recursion
• b) Tabulation ✔
• c) Memoization
• d) Brute force

81. Knapsack problem is solved by:

• a) Greedy
• b) DP ✔
• c) BFS
• d) DFS

82. What is the space complexity of bottom-up DP?

• a) Always O(1)
• b) Depends on problem ✔
• c) O(log n)
• d) O(1)

83. What is optimal substructure?

• a) Problem can be broken into optimal subproblems ✔

• b) Problem cannot be divided
• c) Only works in sorting
• d) Related to hash table

84. Which of these uses DP?

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• a) N-Queens
• b) Matrix Chain Multiplication ✔
• c) Kruskal
• d) Prim’s

85. Top-down approach is also called:

• a) Tabulation
• b) Memoization ✔
• c) Brute Force
• d) DFS

Greedy Algorithms (5 MCQs)

86. Greedy algorithms always:

• a) Choose local optimum ✔

• b) Choose global optimum
• c) Use recursion
• d) None

87. Greedy strategy fails in:

• a) Fractional Knapsack
• b) 0-1 Knapsack ✔
• c) Activity Selection
• d) Huffman Encoding

88. Huffman coding is based on:

• a) Sorting
• b) Greedy ✔
• c) Backtracking
• d) DFS

89. Which of the following uses greedy?

• a) Dijkstra ✔
• b) Bellman-Ford
• c) Binary Search
• d) Merge Sort

90. Activity Selection Problem uses:

• a) Dynamic Programming
• b) Greedy Approach ✔

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• c) Divide & Conquer
• d) Brute Force

Complexity & Big-O (10 MCQs)

91. What is the time complexity of linear search?

• a) O(1)
• b) O(n) ✔
• c) O(log n)
• d) O(n^2)

92. Best case time complexity of binary search?

• a) O(log n)
• b) O(n)
• c) O(1) ✔
• d) O(n log n)

93. Time complexity of accessing array element by index?

• a) O(log n)
• b) O(1) ✔
• c) O(n)
• d) O(n log n)

94. What does Big O represent?

• a) Best case
• b) Average case
• c) Worst case ✔
• d) No case

95. Which of the following grows fastest?

• a) O(1)
• b) O(n)
• c) O(n log n)
• d) O(n!) ✔

96. What is the space complexity of recursive factorial?

• a) O(n) ✔
• b) O(log n)
• c) O(1)
• d) O(n^2)

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97. Which is slower in growth rate?

• a) O(n)
• b) O(n log n) ✔
• c) O(n^2)
• d) O(2^n)

98. What is the time complexity of inserting in a hash table (average case)?

• a) O(log n)
• b) O(n)
• c) O(1) ✔
• d) O(n^2)

99. What is the time complexity of traversing a linked list?

• a) O(1)
• b) O(log n)
• c) O(n) ✔
• d) O(n^2)

100. Time complexity of enqueue operation in queue?

• a) O(1) ✔
• b) O(log n)
• c) O(n)
• d) O(n log n)

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