C Rapidfire 1

PublishedDecember 31, 2023

I am Jyotiprakash, a deeply driven computer systems engineer, software developer, teacher, and philosopher. With a decade of professional experience, I have contributed to various cutting-edge software products in network security, mobile apps, and healthcare software at renowned companies like Oracle, Yahoo, and Epic. My academic journey has taken me to prestigious institutions such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison and BITS Pilani in India, where I consistently ranked among the top of my class.

At my core, I am a computer enthusiast with a profound interest in understanding the intricacies of computer programming. My skills are not limited to application programming in Java; I have also delved deeply into computer hardware, learning about various architectures, low-level assembly programming, Linux kernel implementation, and writing device drivers. The contributions of Linus Torvalds, Ken Thompson, and Dennis Ritchie—who revolutionized the computer industry—inspire me. I believe that real contributions to computer science are made by mastering all levels of abstraction and understanding systems inside out.

In addition to my professional pursuits, I am passionate about teaching and sharing knowledge. I have spent two years as a teaching assistant at UW Madison, where I taught complex concepts in operating systems, computer graphics, and data structures to both graduate and undergraduate students. Currently, I am an assistant professor at KIIT, Bhubaneswar, where I continue to teach computer science to undergraduate and graduate students. I am also working on writing a few free books on systems programming, as I believe in freely sharing knowledge to empower others.

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Jyotiprakash's Blog

251 posts

I'm Jyotiprakash, a software dev and professor at KIIT, with expertise in system programming.

Look at the code, figure out the output, and then read the explanation to see if you got it right.

Bitwise Puzzle:
```
 int x = 5;
 int y = x | 2;
 printf("%d\n", y);
```
Output: 7 Explanation: The bitwise OR (|) operation between 5 (101 in binary) and 2 (010 in binary) results in 111, which is 7 in decimal.
Operator Precedence:
```
 int a = 1, b = 2, c = 3;
 int result = a + b * c;
 printf("%d\n", result);
```
Output: 7 Explanation: Multiplication has higher precedence than addition, so b * c is evaluated first, resulting in 1 + 6.
Pointer Arithmetic:
```
 int arr[] = {10, 20, 30};
 int *ptr = arr;
 printf("%d\n", *(ptr + 2));
```
Output: 30 Explanation: ptr + 2 points to the third element of the array arr, so *(ptr + 2) dereferences it, yielding 30.
Sizeof Operator:
```
 int a = 10;
 printf("%zu\n", sizeof(a++));
```
Output: 4 (assuming int is 4 bytes on the system) Explanation: sizeof operator doesn't evaluate its operand, so a is not incremented.
Comma Operator:
```
 int x = (5, 10);
 printf("%d\n", x);
```
Output: 10 Explanation: The comma operator evaluates each of its operands and returns the last one.
Array-to-Pointer Decay:
```
 char arr[] = "Hello";
 printf("%zu\n", sizeof(arr));
 printf("%zu\n", sizeof(arr + 0));
```
Output: 6 and size of pointer (e.g., 8 on a 64-bit system) Explanation: sizeof(arr) gives the size of the array including the null terminator, whereas arr + 0 is a pointer.
Conditional Operator:
```
 int x = 1, y = 2;
 int max = (x > y) ? x : y;
 printf("%d\n", max);
```
Output: 2 Explanation: It's a simple use of the ternary operator for finding the maximum.
Function Pointer:
```
 void fun() { printf("Hello World\n"); }
 void (*fun_ptr)() = &fun;
 (*fun_ptr)();
```
Output: Hello World Explanation: fun_ptr is a pointer to function fun, and (*fun_ptr)() calls it.
Struct Padding:
```
 struct { char a; int b; } s;
 printf("%zu\n", sizeof(s));
```
Output: Typically 8 on many systems Explanation: Due to padding for alignment, the size is more than the sum of sizes of a and b.
Macro Expansion:
```
#define SQUARE(x) (x * x)
int y = 5;
printf("%d\n", SQUARE(y+1));
```
Output: 11 Explanation: Macro expands to 5 + 1 * 5 + 1, which equals 11 due to lack of parentheses in the macro definition.

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