Viva Questions and Answers - BCSL404 (Analysis & Design of Algorithms Lab)

Q1. What is an algorithm?

A: An algorithm is a finite set of well-defined instructions to solve a problem or

perform a computation.

Q2. What are common algorithm design techniques?

A: Divide and Conquer, Greedy, Dynamic Programming, Backtracking, and Branch and
Bound etc.

Q3. What is time complexity?

A: Time complexity is a measure of the amount of time an algorithm takes to run,

based on input size.

Q4. What is the difference between worst-case, average-case, and best-case

complexities? A:

- Best-case: Minimum time required.

- Average-case: Expected time over all inputs.

- Worst-case: Maximum time for the largest inputs.

Experiment 1: Kruskals Algorithm

Q5. What is the goal of Kruskals algorithm?

A: To find the minimum cost spanning tree using edge-based greedy approach.

Q6. What data structure is used for cycle detection in Kruskals?

Q7. What is the time complexity of Kruskals

algorithm? A: O(E log E), where E = number of

edges.

Experiment 2: Prims Algorithm

Q8. What is the difference between Prim's and Kruskal's algorithm?

A: Prims grows MST from a starting node using adjacent vertices; Kruskals selects globally

smallest edge.

Q9. What is the time complexity of Prim's algorithm?

A: O(V2) with adjacency matrix; O((V + E) log V) with min-heap.

Experiment 3a: Floyd-Warshall

Q10. Can Floyd-Warshall handle negative

weights? A: Yes, but not negative weight

cycles.

Q11. What is the time complexity of Floyd-

Warshall? A: O(V3)

Experiment 3b: Warshalls Algorithm

Q12. What is the purpose of Warshalls algorithm?

A: To compute the transitive closure of a directed graph using logical operations.

algorithm? A: Logical OR and AND.

Experiment 4: Dijkstras Algorithm

Q14. Can Dijkstras algorithm be used for negative

weights? A: No, it assumes shortest paths do not

improve once visited.

Q15. What is the time complexity of Dijkstras

algorithm? A: O((V + E) log V) with min-priority

queue.

Experiment 5: Topological Sort

Q16. What is topological sort used for?

A: Scheduling tasks, resolving dependencies in DAGs.

Q17. Can a graph with cycles have a topological

sort? A: No, only DAGs can be topologically

sorted.

Experiment 6: 0/1 Knapsack

Q18. What is the 0/1 Knapsack problem?

A: Selecting items with maximum value without exceeding knapsack capacity.

Q19. What is the time complexity using DP?

Q20. Is greedy method optimal for 0/1

knapsack? A: No, its only optimal for

fractional knapsack.

Q21. How are items selected in greedy

knapsack? A: By selecting based on

profit/weight ratio.

Experiment 8: Subset Sum

Q22. What is the subset sum problem?

A: Finding a subset whose sum equals a target.

Q23. What is the strategy

used? A: Backtracking with

pruning.

Experiment 9: Selection Sort

Q24. What is the complexity of selection

sort? A: O(n2) in all cases.

Q25. Is selection sort

stable? A: No.

Experiment 10: Quick Sort

Q27. Is quick sort

A: No.

Experiment 11: Merge Sort

Q28. What is the time complexity of merge

sort? A: O(n log n).

Q29. Is merge sort

stable? A: Yes.

Experiment 12: N-Queens Problem

Q30. What is the objective of the N-Queens problem?

A: Place N queens on an NN board such that no two queens attack each other.

Q31. What is the time complexity using

backtracking? A: O(N!).

Additional Questions

Q32. What is the difference between backtracking and dynamic programming?

A: Backtracking explores possibilities recursively; DP stores results of subproblems.

Q33. What is memoization?

Q34. What is a greedy algorithm?

A: Algorithm that makes locally optimal choices at each step.

General Algorithm and Complexity Concepts

Q1. What is the difference between an algorithm and a program?

A: An algorithm is a logical step-by-step procedure, while a program is its

implementation in a programming language.

Q2. What is space complexity?

A: It is the amount of memory space required by an algorithm during its execution.

Q3. What is Big O notation?

A: It represents the upper bound of an algorithms running time, used for worst-case
analysis.

Q4. Define asymptotic notations.

A: They describe the behavior of functions for large input sizes: Big-O (upper bound),

Omega (lower bound), and Theta (tight bound).

Q5. What is the Master Theorem?

Greedy Algorithms and MST

Q6. Why are Kruskal's and Prim's algorithms called greedy?

A: Because they make a series of choices that seem best at the moment (locally optimal).

Q7. What is the main condition for a graph to have an

MST? A: The graph must be connected and

undirected.

Q8. How do you detect a cycle in Kruskals

algorithm? A: Using the Union-Find data

structure.

Dynamic Programming and Backtracking

Q9. What is the principle of optimality in dynamic programming?

A: An optimal solution to the problem contains optimal solutions to subproblems.

Q10. In what cases would dynamic programming be preferred over

recursion? A: When the problem has overlapping sub problems and

optimal substructure.

Q11. Why is backtracking inefficient for large problem spaces?

A: Because it explores many possible solutions and may be exponential in complexity.

Q12. What is the key difference between backtracking and

promising.
Sorting Algorithms

Q13. Which sorting algorithms are comparison-based?

A: Selection sort, Quick sort, Merge sort, Bubble sort, Heap sort.

Q14. What is the auxiliary space of merge sort?

A: O(n), because it uses additional arrays for merging.

Q15. Why is quick sort not stable?

A: It may change the relative order of equal elements due to swapping.

Q16. Which sorting algorithm is best suited for nearly

sorted data? A: Insertion sort.

Graph Algorithms and Traversals

Q17. What is the key difference between BFS and Dijkstras algorithm?

A: BFS is used in unweighted graphs to find shortest paths; Dijkstra is used for weighted
graphs.

Q18. What is the output of topological sort?

A: A linear ordering of vertices such that for every directed edge u v, u appears before v.

Q19. Can Floyd-Warshall detect negative cycles?

A: Yes, if the diagonal of the distance matrix becomes negative.

Special Problems
Q20. How many solutions exist for the 4-Queens

problem? A: Two distinct solutions (considering

symmetric variations).

Q21. What is the constraint check in N-Queens

problem? A: No two queens in the same row,

column, or diagonal.