SP Data Structures and Algorithms 3

Question 1

Which graph traversal algorithm uses a queue (BFS) and is best suited for finding the shortest path in an unweighted graph?

Accepted Answer

Breadth-First Search

Answer

BFS explores nodes level by level using a queue, guaranteeing the shortest path in unweighted graphs.

Question 2

A Salesforce architect must model Account hierarchy relationships for traversal. Which data structure best represents this?

Accepted Answer

Tree

Answer

Account hierarchies are inherently tree structures with a root parent and child nodes at multiple levels.

Question 3

What is the worst-case time complexity of Quick Sort?

Accepted Answer

O(n²)

Answer

Quick Sort degrades to O(n²) when the pivot is consistently the smallest or largest element, causing unbalanced partitions.

Question 4

In an Apex trigger that bulkifies record processing, why should SOQL queries be placed outside loops?

Accepted Answer

To avoid hitting the 150 SOQL query governor limit

Answer

SOQL inside loops can quickly exceed the 150-query-per-transaction limit when processing large record sets.

Question 5

Which Apex Map method safely returns null instead of throwing an exception when a key is not found?

Accepted Answer

get(key)

Answer

Map.get(key) returns null if the key does not exist, avoiding a NullPointerException when handled properly.

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