Position of the largest element — Aptitude Question
Position of the largest element: The array A is 1-indexed, so its elements are A[1] to A[6]. What is printed? Answer and worked solution on CodeKairo.
- Topic: Pseudocode
- Section: Programming MCQs
- Difficulty: Easy
- Time target: 75 seconds
Question
The array A is 1-indexed, so its elements are A[1] to A[6]. What is printed?
Integer A[1..6], i, pos
Set A = {4, 19, 7, 23, 2, 11}
Set pos = 1
For i = 2 to 6
If A[i] > A[pos] Then
Set pos = i
End If
End For
Print posOptions
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 23
Show the answer and the worked solution
Correct answer: C. 4
Worked solution
- pos starts at 1, where A[1] = 4.
- A[2] = 19 beats 4, so pos becomes 2.
- A[3] = 7 does not beat 19, but A[4] = 23 does, so pos becomes 4.
- A[5] = 2 and A[6] = 11 do not beat 23, so pos stays 4 and 4 is printed.
Answer: 4.
The idea
Keeping an index rather than a value is the standard argmax pattern. The distractor 23 is the value at that position, which the code never prints.
Shortcut. Skip the trace: find the largest element, 23, and count its place in {4, 19, 7, 23, 2, 11}. It is 4th, and pos ends holding exactly that place.
Common trap. 23 is the largest value, not its position; picking it means printing A[pos] instead of pos.