Learning Objectives of Problets

Arithmetic expressions:

• Correct evaluation of the 5 operators
• Precedence of the 5 operators
• Associativity of the 5 operators
• Coercion of operands
• Integer and real division
• Inapplicability of real operands to the modulus operator % Division by zero error for division and modulus operators

Relational expressions:

• Correct evaluation of the 6 operators
• Precedence of the 6 operators
• Associativity of the 6 operators
• Precedence of relational operators with respect to arithmetic operators
• Equivalence of non-zero numbers and true, zero and false in C/C++

Logical expressions:

• Correct evaluation of the 3 operators, without and with short-circuit evaluation
• Precedence of the 3 operators
• Associativity of the 3 operators
• Precedence of logical operators with respect to relational operators
• Equivalence of non-zero numbers and true, zero and false in C/C++

Assignment expressions:

• Correct evaluation of simple, self-referential and compound assignment operators
• Correct evaluation of prefix increment and decrement operators
• Correct evaluation of postfix increment and decrement operators
• Widening and narrowing coercion during assignment
• Precedence of all the types of assignment operators
• Associativity of simple and compound assignment operators, and prefix operators (only in C++)

if/if-else statements:

• Execution of an if-else statement when the condition is true
• Execution of an if-else statement when the condition is false
• Cascaded nested if-else statement
• Nested if-else statement used for classification
• Multiple back-to-back if-else statements in a program
• Execution of an if statement when the condition is true
• Execution of an if statement when the condition is false
• Execution of if statement where the condition involves declaration of a variable
• Execution of if statement with a constant or expression as the condition
• Nested if statements
• Multiple back-to-back if statements in a program

switch statements:

• Execution of a switch statement when the condition matches a case
• Execution of a switch statement when the condition matches the default case
• Execution of a switch statement with no default case when the condition matches no case
• The condition of the switch statement is of real data type
• A case statement in the switch is not an integer expression
• A case statement in the switch is not a constant expression
• Condition of the switch is an expression
• A case with no statements
• A case with no break statement
• Nested switch statements in a program
• Multiple back-to-back switch statements in a program

while loops:

• Execution of a while loop wherein one loop variable is changed on each iteration
• Execution of a while loop wherein multiple loop variables change on each iteration
• Execution of a while loop wherein the loop variable is updated at the top of the loop body
• while loop with follow-up statements after the loop
• while loop that iterates zero times
• while loop that iterates exactly once
• Independent nested while loops
• Dependent nested while loops - inner loop condition is affected by the outer loop

for loops:

• Execution of a for loop wherein the loop variable is incremented on each iteration
• Execution of a for loop wherein the loop variable is decremented on each iteration
• for loop whose body is a simple statement
• Execution of a for loop wherein the loop variable is also updated at the top of the loop body
• for loop with follow-up statements after the loop
• for loop that iterates zero times
• for loop that iterates exactly once
• Independent nested for loops
• Dependent nested for loops - inner loop condition is affected by the outer loop

Advanced loop concepts:

• Behavior of break statement in a loop
• Behavior of break statement in a nested loop
• Behavior of continue statement in a loop
• Use of break statement outside loops and switch statements is illegal
• Use of continue statement outside loops is illegal
• Infinite loops resulting from:
  • Missing update of loop condition variable
  • Incorrect update of loop condition variable
  • Condition is an assignment/constant (C++)
• Behavior of multiple dependent loops of different types in a program
• Behavior of nested dependent loops of different types in a program
• Use of accumulator variables in a loop

Behavior of functions:

• Parameters passed by value
  • The actual parameter is a variable
  • The actual parameter is a constant or expression
• The value returned by a function
• Function with multiple return statements
• Calls to multiple functions
• Multiple calls to a function
• Chained function calls
• Variables with the same name in different functions

Debugging functions:

• Mismatch in the number of actual and formal parameters
• Mismatch in the data types of actual and formal parameters
• Value returned by a function is ignored in the caller
• Caller tries to use the value returned by a void-function
• return statement missing in a non-void function
• return statement is not the last statement in the function
• Mismatch in the returned value and return type of a function
• Re-declaration of formal parameters in a function
• Function is called before defined or prototyped (C++ only)

Arrays:

• Initialization of arrays
• Accessing uninitialized (C/C++) versus default-initialized (Java/C#) array elements
• Random versus systematic assignment to array elements
• Random versus systematic referencing of array elements
• Expressions as array subscripts
• Self-referential assignment to array elements
• Passing an entire array (by reference) or an element of an array as parameter to a function
• Mismatch in array parameters passed to functions
• Accessing an array out of bounds

Pointers:

• Dangling pointer: Dereferencing a pointer before initializing/allocating
• Dangling pointer: Dereferencing a pointer after the variable to which it points goes out of scope
• Lost object
• Syntax error: Accessing a pointer out of its scope
• Semantic error: Referencing a variable to which a pointer points before initializing its value
• Semantic error: Referencing an anonymous variable to which a pointer points before initializing its value
• Correct use of pointers