Software Engineering Trivia 2

Question 1

Which sorting algorithm has the best average-case time complexity of O(n log n) and is commonly used in practice due to its in-place operation?

Accepted Answer

Quick Sort

Answer

Quick Sort averages O(n log n) and sorts in-place, making it very cache-efficient and practical despite an O(n²) worst case.

Question 2

In object-oriented programming, what term describes a class that cannot be instantiated directly and is meant to be subclassed?

Accepted Answer

Abstract class

Answer

An abstract class defines a template with some unimplemented methods that subclasses must provide, preventing direct instantiation.

Question 3

What does REST stand for in the context of web API design?

Accepted Answer

Representational State Transfer

Answer

REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architectural style for distributed hypermedia systems, coined by Roy Fielding in 2000.

Question 4

Which data structure uses LIFO (Last In, First Out) order for element access?

Accepted Answer

Stack

Answer

A stack follows LIFO ordering, where the most recently pushed element is the first to be popped.

Question 5

In version control with Git, what command creates a new branch and immediately switches to it?

Accepted Answer

git checkout -b new-branch

Answer

`git checkout -b ` is the classic command that creates and checks out a new branch in a single step.

Software Engineering Practice Test