If you were designing a simple hash function for strings, which operation would likely be a core component?
Finding the length of the string.
Converting characters to their ASCII codes and performing arithmetic operations.
Sorting the characters in the string alphabetically.
Reversing the string.
How are dictionaries typically implemented in programming languages?
Using binary trees for sorted key storage.
Using arrays for efficient indexing.
Using hashmaps to provide fast key-value lookups.
Using linked lists for fast insertions.
Which collision resolution technique is commonly used in hashmaps?
Separate Chaining
Merge Sort
Bubble Sort
Binary Search
In hashmap collision resolution, what does separate chaining involve?
Storing colliding elements in a separate overflow area.
Creating linked lists at each index of the hash table to store colliding elements.
Finding the next available empty slot in the hash table.
Using a secondary hash function to resolve collisions.
Which of these is NOT a desirable property of a good hash function?
It should be computationally expensive to calculate.
It should distribute keys uniformly across the hash table.
It should minimize collisions as much as possible.
It should be deterministic (same input always yields the same output).
What is the purpose of a load factor in a hashmap?
To store the maximum number of key-value pairs.
To count the number of collisions.
To measure the efficiency of the hash function.
To determine when to resize the hashmap.
What is a real-world application of hashmaps?
Sorting a list of numbers in ascending order.
Compressing files to reduce storage space.
Storing and retrieving data in databases.
Performing depth-first search in a graph.
What is a significant disadvantage of using a hashmap when you need to retrieve elements in a sorted order?
Hashmaps have slow insertion times.
Hashmaps don't inherently maintain order.
Hashmaps cannot handle duplicate values.
Hashmaps have high memory consumption.
What is a disadvantage of using a hashmap?
Keys must be immutable.
Cannot iterate over elements in a specific order.
Inability to handle collisions.
Slow search speed.
Which of the following data structures is commonly used to implement a hashmap?
Array
Tree
Linked List
Graph