Sunday, August 16, 2015

Golang Interview Questions & Answers

These interview questions and answers are NOT intended to serve as a shortcut to intensive learning by self trying and assimilating the programming concepts of Go. Moreover, these questions are framed by me from my imagination while learning Go and not from any Go interview as such.

The sole purpose of these questions are to tickle your grey cells to make you think quickly and decisively in the right direction when you face challenges of daily rigors of Go programming. Also, for some of us, the Q and A format works well as far as learning is concerned, may be because in comparison to a  long paragraph, Q and A are specific in nature apart from being precise.  


Q# 1. Write a program that prints the numbers from 1 to 100. But for multiples of three print “Fizz” instead of the number and for the multiples of five print “Buzz”. For numbers which are multiples of both three and five print “FizzBuzz”. 


An image of the expected output is shown here (only till 20 and not 100 as expected)




A# 1. Read this post for Answer

2. How many Looping constructs are present in Go programming language?

A# 2. Only one loop - for.

Q# 3. What is the default value of type bool in Go?

A# 3. false.

Q# 4. In case of Constants which type of expressions are evaluated at compile time and which are evaluated at run time?

A# 4. As a rule Constants are evaluated (determined) at compile time and never at run time. 

Q# 5. Which one of the following is correct?

         a. const Pi = 3.14

         b. const Pi = math.Pi 
         c. both a and b are correct
         d. None of the above

A# 5. c


Q# 6. Short  variable declaration := can be used only inside a function. True or False?

A# 6. True.

Q# 7. Short declaration := can be used for defining global variables. True or False?

A# 7. False.

Q# 8. What's wrong with the following code?

1
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10
11
12
13
14
package main

import "fmt"

func main() {

     var a int8 = 3

     var b int16 = 4

     sum := a + b
 
 fmt.Println(sum)
}


A# 8. Compile time error, you'll get the following message:
invalid operation: a + b (mismatched types int8 and int16)

Note - Though int8 and int16 are similar in nature they are two distinct types. One of the
 variables must be converted explicitly so that both the variables are of same type.

Q# 9. How can you rectify the above code?

A# 9. Replace line 11 with the following line.

          sum := a + int8(b)

Q# 10. What's the output of following code?

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10
11
package main

import "fmt"
 const ( 
       i = iota
       j 
       k 
 )
func main() {
 fmt.Println(i, j, k)
}

A# 10.

0 1 2
Q# 11. What's the output of following code?

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10
11
package main

import "fmt"
 const ( 
       i = 7
       j 
       k 
 )
func main() {
 fmt.Println(i, j, k)
}
A# 11
7 7 7
Q# 12. Refer code snippet Ref12A and Ref12B. They have the same output. True or False?

Ref12A:
package main

import "fmt"

const(
    p = iota  
    q = iota  
    r = iota        
)

func main() {
    fmt.Println(p, q, r)
}
Ref12B
package main

import "fmt"

const ( 
   p, q, r = iota, iota, iota 
)

func main() {
    fmt.Println(p, q, r)
}
A# 12. False.
Note: They have different outputs.
          Output of Ref12A
          0 1 2

          Output of Ref12B 
          0 0 0

Q# 13. What's the output of following code?

package main

import "fmt"

func main(){

     c := [...]int{} 

     fmt.Println(len(c))
 
}

A# 13 
    0

Note: Similarly, c := [...]int{4, 7, 2} would have given an output of 3. Remember, in an 
array declaration you've the option to replace length of the array with ... and Go run time
 is intelligent enough to compute the length at run time.

Q# 14. Arrays are value types i.e. in case of arrays as arguments, functions get their 
copies instead of a reference. True or False?

A# 14. True

Q# 15. Slices are reference type - the variable are stored in the heap? True or False?
A# 15. True
Q# 16. What's the output of following code?


package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    
 oddSlc := []int{1,3,5,7}     
 evenSlc := []int{2,4,6,8}
 copy(evenSlc, oddSlc[2:])    
 fmt.Println("evenSlc = ", evenSlc)
}

A# 16. 
evenSlc =  [5 7 6 8]

Q# 17. Maps are value types. True or False?
A# 17. False

Note: Maps are Reference types. 
Q# 18. Is it recommended to use Global Variables in a program that implements G
routines?
A# 18. Global variables are not recommended as they may get accessed by multiple go routines (threads) concurrently that can easily lead to an unexpected behavior causing arbitrary results. 

Q# 19. Which of the following is NOT a valid Go identifier?

           a. _score2016
           b. 2016_Score
           c. गगन
          d. गगनSky

P.S. Identifiers name program entities such as variables, functions, constants, 
structs, slices, maps etc.

A# 19.  b
Imp. NOTE: In Go the names of variable, function, constant, struct etc must begin with an Unicode letter or an underscore.
Q# 20. Is variable name iCount same as icount in Go programming?
A# 20. No. Go is case sensitive.


Q# 21. In idiomatic Go code package names are all in lower case. Do you agree?
A#  21. Yes. A few OS may not be able to handle mixed case names of packages.
Q# 22. renderHtml - is it an idiomatic Go variable name?

A# 22. No. renderHTML is a better choice. Andrew Gerrand suggestsAcronyms should be all capitals, as in ServeHTTP and IDProcessor.

Q# 23. In Go there's no concept of uninitialized variable. True or False?
A# 23. True
Q# 24. Which of the following is initial value (zero value) for interfaces, slice, pointers, 
maps, channels and functions?

                a. 0
                b. ""
                c. nil
                d. false

A# 24. c

Q# 25. A good name (say a variable name) in Go is short, consistent & easy to understand. Keeping this context in mind, do you agree with the following rule of thumb is Go:
The greater the distance between a name declaration & its uses, the longer the name
should be.

A# 25. Agree.

Q# 26. Is it True - Go compiler is bootstrapped - i.e. Go programming has been used to build Go compiler?

A# 26. Yes. Go 1.4 was used to build Go 1.5. As of Go 1.4 the Go compiler was writtem in C language.
Q# 27. What is the output of the following code snippet?
package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
 var i, j int
 fmt.Println(&i == &i, &i == &j, &j == nil)
}
A# 27. 

     true    false    false


Q# 28. What is the output of the following code snippet?
package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
 x := 1
 y := &x

 fmt.Println(*y)

 *y = 2
 fmt.Println(x)

}
A# 28. 
       1
       2
Q# 29. What is the output of the following code snippet?

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {

 x := 1
 incr(&x)
 fmt.Println(incr(&x))

}
func incr(p *int) int {
 *p++
 return *p
}

A# 29. 

          3

Q# 30. Arrays are homogeneous (their elements have same type) whereas Structs are heterogeneous. Is this Statement True?
 A# 30. Yes.

 
Q# 31. Arrays Structs are fixed size. In contrast Slices Maps are dynamic data structures that grow as values are added. Is this Statement True? 

 A# 31. Yes.


     
P.S. - This is a work in progress. Please contribute. Send your questions
to admin[at]techno-pulse[dot]com.


4 comments:

  1. This is really nice. I like the fizzbuzz question - I use this often times when I interview software engineers :)

    As for the references (pun intended) to "reference type" and "value type" - in Go there isn't really anything like that. Everything is always passed by value. When you pass a pointer to a function, then the memory pointed-to by the pointer is not being copied, the pointer value itself (the address) is being copied. Since a Go slice is mostly made of a pointer to an underlying array, the array itself (the data) is not being copied. However if you'd reslice, append, etc to the slice within the function, it will not make much difference in at the caller's site, since the array pointer, along with the length and cap values that are accessible within the function, are copies of the ones in the slice at the caller.

    ReplyDelete
  2. thanks for compiling this list. for question #5, isn't the answer c

    ReplyDelete
  3. what about the questions on go concurrency. That is the most important part of Golang.

    ReplyDelete