Data Structures Unit 3 – Searching, Hashing & Sorting: AKTU previous year questions
29 AKTU questions from Unit 3 (Searching, Hashing & Sorting) asked in 2020–2026, tagged by marks, year and topic. In short: about 30 marks of every paper come from this unit; the most asked topic is Sorting (14 times); 7 questions came back in a later year. The latest ones are listed below; on the page you can filter them by 2-mark or long questions, topic and repeats.
Unit 3 previous year questions
- Write the algorithm of Insertion sort & sort the following list of numbers using insertion sort. 70, 17, 30, 80, 55, 1, 29, 67, 15. (7 marks, 2026, Sorting)
- Explain linear probing and quadratic probing in hashing with examples. (7 marks, 2026, Hashing)
- What is Hashing? Explain division method to compute the hash function and also explain the collision resolution strategies used in hashing. (7 marks, 2026, Hashing)
- Write an algorithm for Heap Sort. Use Heap sort algorithm, sort the following sequence: 18, 25, 45, 34, 36, 51, 43, and 24. (7 marks, 2026, Sorting)
- Illustrate the concept of Indexed Sequential search. (2 marks, 2025, Searching)
- Construct a Hash table that contains 10 buckets and uses linear probing to resolve collisions. The key values are integers and the hash function used is key % 10. Insert values 43, 165, 62, 123, 142 in the table. Show all the steps and find the location of the key value 142? (7 marks, 2025, Hashing)
- Demonstratemerge sort algorithm to sort the following elements in ascending order : 11, 16, 13, 11, 4, 12, 6, 7. What is the time and space complexity of merge sort? (7 marks, 2025, Sorting)
- Write a C program for sorting 100 integer numbers wring selection sort procedure. Discuss the worst-case time complexity of the algorithms. (7 marks, 2024, Sorting)
- Write a program in C language to implement binary search algorithm. Also discuss the average behavior of the algorithm. (7 marks, 2024, Searching)
- What are the disadvantages of linear probing in hashing? Discuss how quadratic probing can be used to solve some of these problems. (7 marks, 2024, Hashing)
- How the choice of pivot element effects the running time of quick sort algorithm? (2 marks, 2024, Sorting)
- What are the 2 different forms of hashing? (2 marks, 2024, Hashing)
Most asked Unit 3 topics
- Sorting – asked 14 times
- Hashing – asked 9 times
- Searching – asked 6 times
Unit 3 question pattern
- 2-mark questions: 7 asked in 2020–2026
- 7-mark questions: 9 asked in 2020–2026
- 10-mark questions: 13 asked in 2020–2026
- About 30 marks from Unit 3 in every paper
- 7 questions were asked again in a later year
Unit 3 questions year by year
- 2026: 4 Unit 3 questions asked (28 marks across that year's papers)
- 2025: 3 Unit 3 questions asked (16 marks across that year's papers)
- 2024: 5 Unit 3 questions asked (25 marks across that year's papers)
- 2023: 4 Unit 3 questions asked (32 marks across that year's papers)
- 2022: 5 Unit 3 questions asked (42 marks across that year's papers)
- 2021: 4 Unit 3 questions asked (32 marks across that year's papers)
- 2020: 4 Unit 3 questions asked (32 marks across that year's papers)