C Interview Question

1) What is the use of a ‘\0’ character?

It is referred to as a terminating null character, and is used primarily to show the end of a string value.

2) What is the difference between the = symbol and == symbol?

The = symbol is often used in mathematical operations. It is used to assign a value to a given variable. On the other hand, the == symbol, also known as “equal to” or “equivalent to”, is a relational operator that is used to compare two values.

3) What is the modulus operator?

The modulus operator outputs the remainder of a division. It makes use of the percentage (%) symbol. For example: 10 % 3 = 1, meaning when you divide 10 by 3, the remainder is 1.

4) What is a nested loop?

A nested loop is a loop that runs within another loop. Put it in another sense, you have an inner loop that is inside an outer loop. In this scenario, the inner loop is performed a number of times as specified by the outer loop. For each turn on the outer loop, the inner loop is first performed.

5) Which of the following operators is incorrect and why? ( >=, <=, <>, ==)

<> is incorrect. While this operator is correctly interpreted as “not  equal to” in writing conditional statements, it is not the proper operator to be used in C programming. Instead, the operator  !=  must be used to indicate “not equal to” condition.

6) Compare and contrast compilers from interpreters.

Compilers and interpreters often deal with how program codes are executed. Interpreters execute program codes one line at a time, while compilers take the program as a whole and convert it into object code, before executing it. The key difference here is that in the case of interpreters, a program may encounter syntax errors in the middle of execution, and will stop from there. On the other hand, compilers check the syntax of the entire program and will only proceed to execution when no syntax errors are found.

7) How do you declare a variable that will hold string values?

The char keyword can only hold 1 character value at a time. By creating an array of characters, you can store string values in it. Example: “char MyName[50]; ” declares a string variable named MyName that can hold a maximum of 50 characters.