Heaps and Priority Queues: Interactive Learning Quizzes for Computer Science Students

Question 1

What is the difference between a max-heap and a min-heap?

Accepted Answer

In a max-heap, each node's key is greater than or equal to its children, while in a min-heap, it is less than or equal to its children

Answer

Min-heap stores the largest element at the root, while max-heap stores the smallest

Question 2

What is the time complexity of inserting an element into a heap of size n?

Accepted Answer

O(log n)

Answer

O(1)

Answer

O(n)

Answer

O(n log n)

Question 3

In a binary tree representation of a heap, what node is the left child of a given node?

Accepted Answer

The leftmost node among the given node's children

Answer

The node with the smallest key among the given node's children

Answer

The node with the largest key among the given node's children

Answer

The rightmost node among the given node's children

Question 4

Which of the following data structures can be implemented efficiently using a heap?

Accepted Answer

Priority queue

Answer

Queue

Answer

Stack

Answer

Set

Question 5

Which of the following is a fundamental property of all heaps?

Accepted Answer

Complete binary tree structure

Answer

Height-balanced structure

Answer

Self-organizing structure

Question 6

Which traversal technique is commonly employed to efficiently construct a heap from an unordered array?

Accepted Answer

Bottom-up approach (heapify)

Answer

Breadth-first search

Answer

Depth-first search

Question 7

What is the primary purpose of a heapify operation?

Accepted Answer

Restoring heap properties after an insertion or deletion

Answer

Transforming an unordered array into a heap

Answer

Finding the minimum or maximum element in the heap

Question 8

Explain the relationship between the height of a heap and the number of elements it can accommodate.

Accepted Answer

Height is logarithmically proportional to the number of elements

Answer

Height is linearly proportional to the number of elements

Answer

Height is independent of the number of elements

Question 9

In Dijkstra's algorithm, how do heaps assist in finding the shortest path in a weighted graph?

Accepted Answer

Heaps act as a priority queue, allowing for efficient retrieval of the node with the shortest distance from the starting node.

Answer

Heaps help identify visited nodes and determine if a node has been processed.

Answer

Heaps compute the shortest path between any two nodes in the graph.

Answer

Heaps are not used in Dijkstra's algorithm.

Question 10

What is the time complexity of the heapify operation, which transforms an array into a heap?

Accepted Answer

O(n)

Answer

O(n log n)

Answer

O(log n)

Answer

O(1)

Question 11

Which of the following is a practical application of priority queues implemented using heaps?

Accepted Answer

Scheduling tasks in an operating system

Answer

Finding the shortest path in a graph

Answer

Implementing a binary search tree

Answer

Sorting a list of elements

Question 12

What is the time complexity of inserting an element into a heap?

Accepted Answer

O(log n)

Answer

O(1)

Answer

O(n)

Answer

O(n log n)

Question 13

In the context of heapsort, what is the primary purpose of the 'heapify' operation?

Accepted Answer

To convert an unsorted array into a heap

Answer

To sort a heap into ascending order

Answer

To find the maximum element in a heap

Answer

To delete an element from a heap

Question 14

What is the time complexity of deleting an element from a heap?

Accepted Answer

O(log n)

Answer

O(1)

Answer

O(n)

Answer

O(n log n)

Question 15

Which of the following algorithms does NOT utilize a heap data structure?

Accepted Answer

Floyd-Warshall algorithm

Answer

Dijkstra's algorithm

Answer

Prim's algorithm

Answer

Kruskal's algorithm

Question 16

Which data structure is commonly used to implement a priority queue?

Accepted Answer

Heap

Answer

Linear queue

Answer

Doubly-linked list

Answer

Binary search tree

Question 17

Which of the following is not a potential disadvantage of using a heap as a priority queue?

Accepted Answer

Deleting elements from a heap is highly efficient

Answer

Heap construction can be computationally expensive

Answer

Inserting new elements into a heap can be slow

Answer

Heaps are not suitable for managing very large datasets

Question 18

What is the minimum number of nodes in a heap of height h?

Accepted Answer

2^h - 1

Answer

h

Answer

2^h

Answer

2^(h+1) - 1

Question 19

Which sorting algorithm utilizes a heap data structure?

Accepted Answer

Heap Sort

Answer

Quick Sort

Answer

Merge Sort

Answer

Bubble Sort

Question 20

Which property is NOT associated with a max-heap?

Accepted Answer

The left child of a node is always smaller than the right child.

Answer

The root is the maximum element.

Answer

The heap is a complete binary tree.

Question 21

Which of the following is a suitable data structure to implement a priority queue?

Accepted Answer

Heap

Answer

Binary search tree

Answer

Sorted array

Answer

Linked list

Question 22

Consider the heap: [10, 5, 3, 2, 4, 8, 9]. If the root is deleted, what element will replace it?

Accepted Answer

5

Answer

2

Answer

9

Answer

8

Question 23

One of the applications of heaps includes:

Accepted Answer

Dijkstra's algorithm

Answer

Bubble sort

Answer

Binary search

Answer

Hashing

Question 24

A potential disadvantage of using heaps is that they:

Accepted Answer

May not be cache-friendly

Answer

Guarantee efficient deletion

Answer

Enable fast insertion

Answer

Are easy to implement

Question 25

In a heap, the children of a node at index 'i' are located at:

Accepted Answer

Indices 2 * i + 1 and 2 * i + 2

Answer

Indices i/2 and i/2 + 1

Answer

Indices i - 1 and i - 2

Answer

Indices i + 1 and i + 2