In a symbol table implementation using a hashmap, what do the keys usually represent?
Memory addresses of variables.
Names of variables or identifiers.
Values of variables.
Data types of variables.
Which characteristic of a hash function is undesirable and can lead to performance degradation?
High Collision Rate
Uniform Distribution
Fast Computation
Deterministic
What is a disadvantage of using hashmaps when the number of elements to be stored is not known in advance?
They are not suitable for storing data in a sorted order.
They are more complex to implement than linked lists.
They are less memory-efficient than arrays for storing a fixed number of elements.
They might require resizing, which can be an expensive operation.
Which of these is a disadvantage of open addressing compared to separate chaining in hashmaps?
Requires more complex implementation compared to chaining.
Cannot handle a large number of collisions efficiently.
Increased memory usage due to linked lists.
Clustering of elements can lead to performance degradation.
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 cannot handle duplicate values.
Hashmaps don't inherently maintain order.
Hashmaps have high memory consumption.
Why is a good hash function important for hashmap performance?
To reduce the memory used by the hash table.
To ensure that keys are evenly distributed across the hash table, reducing collisions.
To allow for efficient resizing of the hash table.
To minimize the number of comparisons required to find an element.
Which collision resolution technique is commonly used in hashmaps?
Merge Sort
Binary Search
Separate Chaining
Bubble Sort
If you were designing a simple hash function for strings, which operation would likely be a core component?
Sorting the characters in the string alphabetically.
Converting characters to their ASCII codes and performing arithmetic operations.
Finding the length of the string.
Reversing the string.
Which of these data structures is commonly used to handle collisions in hashmaps?
Binary Tree
Queue
Heap
Linked List
How are dictionaries typically implemented in programming languages?
Using arrays for efficient indexing.
Using binary trees for sorted key storage.
Using linked lists for fast insertions.
Using hashmaps to provide fast key-value lookups.