The GATE Grind

GATE Programming, Data Structures and Algorithms: Searching and sorting algorithms – Previous Year Questions

6 GATE previous year questions on Searching and sorting algorithms (Programming, Data Structures and Algorithms, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence) with answers and explanations, from every paper.

  1. GATE 2024 DA Q40 (2 marks, Multiple choice) – Let F(n) denote the maximum number of comparisons made while searching for an entry in a sorted array of size n using binary search. Which ONE of the…
  2. GATE 2024 DA Q45 (2 marks, Multiple choice) – Consider the following sorting algorithms: (i) Bubble sort (ii) Insertion sort (iii) Selection sort Which ONE among the following choices of sorting…
  3. GATE 2025 DA Q27 (1 mark, Multiple select) – For which of the following inputs does binary search take time O( n) in the worst case?
  4. GATE 2025 DA Q29 (1 mark, Multiple select) – Suppose that insertion sort is applied to the array [1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, x, 15, 13] and it takes exactly two swaps to sort the array. Select all…
  5. GATE 2026 DA Q31 (1 mark, Numerical answer) – Let A be a sorted array containing 1000 distinct integers. You perform a recursive binary search on A to find an element y. Suppose each comparison…
  6. GATE 2026 DA Q49 (2 marks, Multiple select) – Consider the problem of sorting the given array in ascending order: P = [1, 2, 3, 5, 4] Consider two sorting algorithms Bubble Sort (BS) and Insertion…