C Programming Viva Questions with Answers (First Year)
Functions
Q1. What is a function in C?
Ans: A function is a block of code that performs a specific task. It is used to modularize a program.
Q2. What is the difference between call by value and call by reference?
Ans: Call by value passes a copy of the variable, while call by reference passes the address.
Q3. What are function prototypes?
Ans: They declare the function signature before its actual definition to help the compiler understand its usage.
Q4. Can we return more than one value from a function?
Ans: No, but we can use pointers or structures to simulate multiple return values.
Q5. What is recursion? Give an example.
Ans: Recursion is a function calling itself. Example: calculating factorial using recursion.
Arrays
Q1. What is an array in C?
Ans: An array is a collection of elements of the same type stored in contiguous memory locations.
Q2. How do you declare and initialize a 1D array and 2D array?
Ans: 1D: int arr[5] = {1,2,3,4,5}; 2D: int mat[2][2] = {{1,2},{3,4}};
Q3. What is the difference between an array and a pointer?
Ans: Array is a collection of elements, pointer stores the address of a variable. Arrays are static, pointers are dynamic.
Q4. What happens if you access an array index out of bounds?
Ans: It leads to undefined behavior.
Q5. How do you pass an array to a function?
Ans: By passing the base address of the array (e.g., int func(int arr[])).
Structures
Q1. What is a structure in C?
Ans: A structure is a user-defined data type that groups related variables of different data types.
Q2. How is a structure different from an array?
Ans: Arrays hold similar data types, structures can hold different data types.
Q3. How do you access structure members?
Ans: Using the dot operator (.) or arrow operator (->) if using a pointer.
Q4. Can structures be nested?
C Programming Viva Questions with Answers (First Year)
Ans: Yes, one structure can contain another structure.
Q5. How are structures passed to functions?
Ans: They can be passed by value or by reference (using pointers).
Unions
Q1. What is a union?
Ans: A union is a user-defined data type where all members share the same memory location.
Q2. Difference between structure and union?
Ans: Structures allocate separate memory for each member; unions share the same memory.
Q3. When would you use a union?
Ans: When memory conservation is needed and only one member is used at a time.
Q4. Can a union have a structure member?
Ans: Yes, unions can have structures and vice versa.
Q5. What is the size of a union?
Ans: Size is equal to the size of its largest member.
Pointers
Q1. What is a pointer?
Ans: A pointer is a variable that stores the address of another variable.
Q2. What is the syntax for declaring a pointer?
Ans: datatype *pointer_name; e.g., int *ptr;
Q3. What is a NULL pointer?
Ans: A pointer that does not point to any memory location.
Q4. What is pointer arithmetic?
Ans: Operations like increment/decrement on pointers to traverse through memory addresses.
Q5. Can we have a pointer to a pointer?
Ans: Yes, it is called a double pointer (e.g., int **pptr).
Q6. How are pointers used in function arguments?
Ans: To pass by reference and modify values of actual parameters.
Operators
Q1. What are the types of operators in C?
C Programming Viva Questions with Answers (First Year)
Ans: Arithmetic, Relational, Logical, Assignment, Bitwise, Unary, etc.
Q2. What is the difference between == and =?
Ans: == is a comparison operator, = is an assignment operator.
Q3. What is the use of sizeof operator?
Ans: To get the memory size (in bytes) of a data type or variable.
Q4. What is operator precedence?
Ans: The order in which operators are evaluated in an expression.
Q5. What does the & and * operators mean in pointers?
Ans: & gives the address, * dereferences the pointer to get the value.
File Handling
Q1. What is file handling in C?
Ans: Reading and writing data to/from a file stored on disk.
Q2. What are the file modes in fopen()?
Ans: 'r', 'w', 'a', 'r+', 'w+', 'a+' for reading, writing, and appending.
Q3. What is the difference between fscanf and fgets?
Ans: fscanf reads formatted input; fgets reads an entire line including spaces.
Q4. What does fclose() do?
Ans: It closes the file that was opened.
Q5. What is the difference between text and binary files?
Ans: Text files store characters; binary files store data in binary form.
Q6. How do you write to a file using C?
Ans: Use functions like fprintf, fputs, or fwrite.
Q7. What is EOF?
Ans: End of File indicator, usually returned by functions like getc when file ends.
