Dear visitor,
Thanks for your interest in C programming. In this page, you will find a list of interesting C programming questions/puzzles, These programs listed are the ones which I have received as e-mail forwards from my friends, a few I read in some books, a few from the internet, and a few from my coding experiences in C.
Most of the programs are meant to be compiled, run and to be explained for their behaviour. The puzzles/questions can be broadly put into the following categories:
General typo errors, which C programmers do often and are very difficult to trace.
Small programs which are extremely hard to understand at the first examination. These questions make a good excercise of reading and understanding effecient code written by others.
I have used Gnu/Linux/gcc for all of them. The order in which the programs appear doesn't have any relation with the level of difficulty. Please feel free to contact me if you need any help in solving the problems. My contact info. is available here And you might be interested in a few references for C programming, which I personally found very interesting.
If you are preparing for campus interviews, you might find the following link interesting:
http://placementsindia.blogspot.com
http://www.interviewmantra.net/category/interview-questions/c
Regards,
Gowri Kumar
C puzzles
The expected output of the following C program is to print the elements in the array. But when actually run, it doesn't do so.
#include
#defineTOTAL_ELEMENTS(sizeof(array)/sizeof(array[0]))
int array[] = {23,34,12,17,204,99,16};
int main()
{
int d;
for(d=-1;d <= (TOTAL_ELEMENTS-2);d++)
printf("%d\n",array[d+1]);
return 0;
}
Find out what's going wrong.
hint
I thought the following program was a perfect C program. But on compiling, I found a silly mistake. Can you find it out (without compiling the program :-) ?
#include
void OS_Solaris_print()
{
printf("Solaris - Sun Microsystems\n");
}
void OS_Windows_print()
{
printf("Windows - Microsoft\n");
}
void OS_HP-UX_print()
{
printf("HP-UX - Hewlett Packard\n");
}
int main()
{
int num;
printf("Enter the number (1-3):\n");
scanf("%d",&num);
switch(num)
{
case 1:
OS_Solaris_print();
break;
case 2:
OS_Windows_print();
break;
case 3:
OS_HP-UX_print();
break;
default:
printf("Hmm! only 1-3 :-)\n");
break;
}
return 0;
}
hint
What's the expected output for the following program and why? enum {false,true};
int main()
{
int i=1;
do
{
printf("%d\n",i);
i++;
if(i < 15)
continue;
}while(false);
return 0;
} hint
The following program doesn't "seem" to print "hello-out". (Try executing it) #include
#include
int main()
{
while(1)
{
fprintf(stdout,"hello-out");
fprintf(stderr,"hello-err");
sleep(1);
}
return 0;
} What could be the reason?
#include
#definef(a,b)a##b
#defineg(a)#a
#defineh(a)g(a)
int main()
{
printf("%s\n",h(f(1,2)));
printf("%s\n",g(f(1,2)));
return 0;
}
Just by looking at the program one "might" expect the output to be, the same for both the printf statements. But on running the program you get it as:
bash$ ./a.out
12
f(1,2)
bash$
Why is it so?
hint
#include
int main()
{
int a=10;
switch(a)
{
case '1':
printf("ONE\n");
break;
case '2':
printf("TWO\n");
break;
defa1ut:
printf("NONE\n");
}
return 0;
}
If you expect the output of the above program to be
NONE
, I would request you to check it out!!
The following C program segfaults of IA-64, but works fine on IA-32.
int main()
{
int* p;
p = (int*)malloc(sizeof(int));
*p = 10;
return 0;
}
Why does it happen so?
Here is a small piece of program(again just 14 lines of program) which counts the number of bits set in a number.
Input
Output
0
0(0000000)
5
2(0000101)
7
3(0000111)
int CountBits(unsigned int x )
{
static unsigned int mask[] = { 0x55555555,
0x33333333,
0x0F0F0F0F,
0x00FF00FF,
0x0000FFFF
} ;
int i ;
int shift ; /* Number of positions to shift to right*/
for ( i =0, shift =1; i < 5; i ++, shift *= 2)
x = (x & mask[i ])+ ( ( x >> shift) & mask[i]);
return x;
}
Find out the logic used in the above program.
What do you think would be the output of the following program and why? (If you are about to say "f is 1.0", I would say check it out again)
#include
int main()
{
float f=0.0f;
int i;
for(i=0;i<10;i++)
f = f + 0.1f;
if(f == 1.0f)
printf("f is 1.0\n");
else
printf("f is NOT 1.0\n");
return 0;
}
I thought the following C program is perfectly valid (after reading about the comma operator in C). But there is a mistake in the following program, can you identify it?
#include
int main()
{
int a = 1,2;
printf("a :%d\n",a);
return 0;
}
What would be the output of the following C program? (Is it a valid C program?)
#include
int main()
{
int i=43;
printf("%d\n",printf("%d",printf("%d",i)));
return 0;
}
void duff(register char *to, register char *from, register int count)
{
register int n=(count+7)/8;
switch(count%8){
case 0: do{ *to++ = *from++;
case 7: *to++ = *from++;
case 6: *to++ = *from++;
case 5: *to++ = *from++;
case 4: *to++ = *from++;
case 3: *to++ = *from++;
case 2: *to++ = *from++;
case 1: *to++ = *from++;
}while( --n >0);
}
}
Is the above valid C code? If so, what is it trying to acheive and why would anyone do something like the above?
Here is yet another implementation of CountBits. Verify whether it is correct (how do you that???). If so, find out the logic used.
int CountBits(unsigned int x)
{
int count=0;
while(x)
{
count++;
x = x&(x-1);
}
return count;
}
Are the following two function prototypes same?
int foobar(void);
int foobar();
The following programs should be of some help in finding the answer: (Compile and run both the programs and see what happens)
Program 1:
#include
void foobar1(void)
{
printf("In foobar1\n");
}
void foobar2()
{
printf("In foobar2\n");
}
int main()
{
char ch = 'a';
foobar1();
foobar2(33, ch);
return 0;
}
Program 2:
#include
void foobar1(void)
{
printf("In foobar1\n");
}
void foobar2()
{
printf("In foobar2\n");
}
int main()
{
char ch = 'a';
foobar1(33, ch);
foobar2();
return 0;
}
What's the output of the following program and why?
#include
int main()
{
float a = 12.5;
printf("%d\n", a);
printf("%d\n", *(int *)&a);
return 0;
}
The following is a small C program split across files. What do you expect the output to be, when both of them compiled together and run?
File1.c
int arr[80];
File2.c
extern int *arr;
int main()
{
arr[1] = 100;
return 0;
}
Explain the output of the following C program (No, the output is not 20).
#include
int main()
{
int a=1;
switch(a)
{ int b=20;
case 1: printf("b is%d\n",b);
break;
default:printf("b is%d\n",b);
break;
}
return 0;
}
What is the output of the following program? (Again, it is not 40, (if the size of integer is 4)).
#defineSIZE10
void size(int arr[SIZE])
{
printf("size of array is:%d\n",sizeof(arr));
}
int main()
{
int arr[SIZE];
size(arr);
return 0;
}
The following is a simple c program, in which there is a function called Error to display errors. Can you see a potential problem with the way Error is defined?
#include
#include
void Error(char* s)
{
printf(s);
return;
}
int main()
{
int *p;
p = malloc(sizeof(int));
if(p == NULL)
{
Error("Could not allocate the memory\n");
Error("Quitting....\n");
exit(1);
}
else
{
/*some stuff to use p*/
}
return 0;
}
What is the differnce between the following function calls to scanf?(Please notice the space carefully in the second call. Try removing it and observe the behaviour of the program)
#include
int main()
{
char c;
scanf("%c",&c);
printf("%c\n",c);
scanf("%c",&c);
printf("%c\n",c);
return 0;
}
What is the potential problem with the following C program?
#include
int main()
{
char str[80];
printf("Enter the string:");
scanf("%s",str);
printf("You entered:%s\n",str);
return 0;
}
What is the output of the following program?
#include
int main()
{
int i;
i = 10;
printf("i :%d\n",i);
printf("sizeof(i++) is:%d\n",sizeof(i++));
printf("i :%d\n",i);
return 0;
}
Why does the following program give a warning? (Please remember that sending a normal pointer to a function requiring const pointer does not give any warning)
#include
void foo(const char **p) { }
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
foo(argv);
return 0;
}
What is the output of the following program?
#include
int main()
{
int i;
i = 1,2,3;
printf("i:%d\n",i);
return 0;
}
The following is a piece of code which implements the reverse Polish Calculator. There is a(are) serious(s) bug in the code. Find it(them) out!!! Assume that the function getop returns the appropriate return values for operands, opcodes, EOF etc..
#include
#include
#defineMAX80
#defineNUMBER'0'
int getop(char[]);
void push(double);
double pop(void);
int main()
{
int type;
char s[MAX];
while((type = getop(s)) != EOF)
{
switch(type)
{
case NUMBER:
push(atof(s));
break;
case '+':
push(pop() + pop());
break;
case '*':
push(pop() * pop());
break;
case '-':
push(pop() - pop());
break;
case '/':
push(pop() / pop());
break;
/* ...
* ...
* ...
*/
}
}
}
The following is a simple program which implements a minimal version of
banner
command available on most *nix systems. Find out the logic used in the program.
#include
#include
char t[]={
0,0,0,0,0,0,12,18,33,63,
33,33,62,32,62,33,33,62,30,33,
32,32,33,30,62,33,33,33,33,62,
63,32,62,32,32,63,63,32,62,32,
32,32,30,33,32,39,33,30,33,33,
63,33,33,33,4,4,4,4,4,4,
1,1,1,1,33,30,33,34,60,36,
34,33,32,32,32,32,32,63,33,51,
45,33,33,33,33,49,41,37,35,33,
30,33,33,33,33,30,62,33,33,62,
32,32,30,33,33,37,34,29,62,33,
33,62,34,33,30,32,30,1,33,30,
31,4,4,4,4,4,33,33,33,33,
33,30,33,33,33,33,18,12,33,33,
33,45,51,33,33,18,12,12,18,33,
17,10,4,4,4,4,63,2,4,8,
16,63
};
int main(int argc,char** argv)
{
int r,pr;
for(r=0;r<6;++r)
{
char *p=argv[1];
while(pr&&*p)
{
int o=(toupper(*p++)-'A')*6+6+r;
o=(o<0||o>=sizeof(t))?0:o;
for(pr=5;pr>=-1;--pr)
{
printf("%c",( ( (pr>=0) && (t[o]&(1<
}
}
printf("\n");
}
return 0;
}
What is the output of the following program?
#include
#include
#defineSIZEOF(arr) (sizeof(arr)/sizeof(arr[0]))
#definePrintInt(expr)printf("%s:%d\n",#expr,(expr))
int main()
{
/* The powers of 10 */
int pot[] = {
0001,
0010,
0100,
1000
};
int i;
for(i=0;i
PrintInt(pot[i]);
return 0;
}
The following is the implementation of the
Euclid's algorithm
for finding the
G.C.D(Greatest Common divisor)
of two integers. Explain the logic for the below implementation and think of any possible improvements on the current implementation.
BTW, what does
scanf
function return?
#include
int gcd(int u,int v)
{
int t;
while(v > 0)
{
if(u > v)
{
t = u;
u = v;
v = t;
}
v = v-u;
}
return u;
}
int main()
{
int x,y;
printf("Enter x y to find their gcd:");
while(scanf("%d%d",&x, &y) != EOF)
{
if(x >0 && y>0)
printf("%d%d%d\n",x,y,gcd(x,y));
printf("Enter x y to find their gcd:");
}
printf("\n");
return 0;
}
Also implement a C function similar to the above to find the
GCD of 4 integers.
What's the output of the following program. (No, it's not 10!!!)
#include
#definePrintInt(expr)printf("%s:%d\n",#expr,(expr))
int main()
{
int y = 100;
int *p;
p = malloc(sizeof(int));
*p = 10;
y = y/*p;/*dividing y by *p */;
PrintInt(y);
return 0;
}
The following is a simple C program to read a date and print the date. Run it and explain the behaviour
#include
int main()
{
int day,month,year;
printf("Enter the date (dd-mm-yyyy) format including -'s:");
scanf("%d-%d-%d",&day,&month,&year);
printf("The date you have entered is%d-%d-%d\n",day,month,year);
return 0;
}
The following is a simple C program to read and print an integer. But it is not working properly. What is(are) the mistake(s)?
#include
int main()
{
int n;
printf("Enter a number:\n");
scanf("%d\n",n);
printf("You entered%d\n",n);
return 0;
}
The following is a simple C program which tries to multiply an integer by 5 using the bitwise operations. But it doesn't do so. Explain the reason for the wrong behaviour of the program.
#include
#definePrintInt(expr)printf("%s:%d\n",#expr,(expr))
int FiveTimes(int a)
{
int t;
t = a<<2 + a;
return t;
}
int main()
{
int a = 1, b = 2,c = 3;
PrintInt(FiveTimes(a));
PrintInt(FiveTimes(b));
PrintInt(FiveTimes(c));
return 0;
}
Is the following a valid C program?
#include
#definePrintInt(expr)printf("%s:%d\n",#expr,(expr))
int max(int x, int y)
{
(x > y) ?returnx: return y;
}
int main()
{
int a = 10, b = 20;
PrintInt(a);
PrintInt(b);
PrintInt(max(a,b));
}
The following is a piece of C code, whose intention was to print a minus sign 20 times. But you can notice that, it doesn't work.
#include
int main()
{
int i;
int n = 20;
for( i = 0; i < n; i-- )
printf("-");
return 0;
}
Well fixing the above code is straight-forward. To make the problem interesting, you have to fix the above code, by changing exactly
one
character. There are three known solutions. See if you can get all those three.
What's the mistake in the following code?
#include
int main()
{
int* ptr1,ptr2;
ptr1 = malloc(sizeof(int));
ptr2 = ptr1;
*ptr2 = 10;
return 0;
}
What is the output of the following program?
#include
int main()
{
int cnt = 5, a;
do {
a /= cnt;
} while (cnt --);
printf("%d\n", a);
return 0;
}
What is the output of the following program?
#include
int main()
{
int i = 6;
if( ((++i < 7) && ( i++/6)) || (++i <= 9))
;
printf("%d\n",i);
return 0;
}
What is the bug in the following program?
#include
#include
#defineSIZE15
int main()
{
int *a, i;
a = malloc(SIZE*sizeof(int));
for (i=0; i
*(a + i) = i * i;
for (i=0; i
printf("%d\n", *a++);
free(a);
return 0;
}
Is the following a valid C program? If so, what is the output of it?
#include
int main()
{
int a=3, b = 5;
printf(&a["Ya!Hello! how is this?%s\n"], &b["junk/super"]);
printf(&a["WHAT%c%c%c%c%c%c!\n"], 1["this"],
2["beauty"],0["tool"],0["is"],3["sensitive"],4["CCCCCC"]);
return 0;
}
What is the output of the following, if the input provided is:
Life is beautiful
#include
int main()
{
char dummy[80];
printf("Enter a string:\n");
scanf("%[^a]",dummy);
printf("%s\n",dummy);
return 0;
}
Note : This question has more to do with Linker than C language
We have three files a.c, b.c and main.c respectively as follows:
a.c
---
int a;
b.c
---
int a = 10;
main.c
------
extern int a;
int main()
{
printf("a =%d\n",a);
return 0;
}
Let's see what happens, when the files are compiled together:
bash$ gcc a.c b.c main.c
bash$ ./a.out
a = 10
Hmm!! no compilation/linker error!!! Why is it so??
The following is the
offset
macros which is used many a times. Figure out what is it trying to do and what is the advantage of using it.
#defineoffsetof(a,b) ((int)(&(((a*)(0))->b)))
The following is the macro implementation of the famous,
Triple xor swap
.
#defineSWAP(a,b) ((a)^=(b)^=(a)^=(b))
What are the potential problems with the above macro?
What is the use of the following macro?
#defineDPRINTF(x)printf("%s:%d\n",#x,x)
Let's say you were asked to code a function IAddOverFlow which takes three parameters, pointer to an integer where the result is to be stored, and the two integers which needs to be added. It returns 0 if there is an overflow and 1 otherwise:
int IAddOverFlow(int* result,int a,int b)
{
/* ... */
}
So, how do you code the above function? (To put in a nutshell, what is the logic you use for overflow detection?)
What does the following macro do?
#defineROUNDUP(x,n) ((x+n-1)&(~(n-1)))
Most of the C programming books, give the following example for the definition of macros.
#defineisupper(c) (((c)>='A')&&((c)<='Z'))
But there would be a serious problem with the above definition of macro, if it is used as follows (what is the problem??)
char c;
/* ... */
if(isupper(c++))
{
/* ... */
}
But most of the libraries implement the
isupper
(declared in ctypes.h) as a macro (without any side effects). Find out how
isupper()
is implemented on your system.
I hope you know that
ellipsis (...)
is used to specify variable number of arguments to a function. (What is the function prototype declaration for
printf
?) What is wrong with the following delcaration?
int VarArguments(...)
{
/*....*/
return 0;
}
Write a C program to find the smallest of three integers,
without using any of the comparision operators
.
What does the format specifier
%n
of
printf
function do?
Write a C function which does the addition of two integers without using the '+' operator. You can use only the bitwise operators.(Remember the good old method of implementing the full-adder circuit using the or, and, xor gates....)
How do you print
I can print %
using the
printf
function? (Remember
%
is used as a format specifier!!!)
What's the difference between the following two C statements?
const char *p;
char* const p;
What is the difference between
memcpy
and
memmove
?
What is the format specifiers for
printf
to print double and float values?
Write a small C program to determine whether a machine's type is little-endian or big-endian.
Write a C program which prints
Hello World!
without using a semicolon!!!