After1 month from now, I will start giving job interviews. Searchign at
Google led me to several common questions asked in interviewers looking
for C++ based programmers. I have titled it "C++ interview questions - 1
(technical)" as, after sometime, I will start another thread titled "C++
interview questions (general)":

I searched for the archives too but didn ot get answers:

1.) Why array index start at 0 (zero) ?

I got these results but I can't know which one is right:

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.c/browse_thread/
thread/73497fc628da3bf5/69c1e93404e86b5c?q=why+array+index+start+at+zero&lnk=ol&
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.c/browse_thread/thread/6aadd2ee93c4283e
/675769f6aa2315ce?lnk=gst&q=why+array+index+start+at+zero#675769f6aa2315ce
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.c++/browse_thread/thread/3323640c835dd4.../
e0972682186dcdd9?lnk=gst&q=why+array+index+start+at+zero#e0972682186dcdd9

2.) What is RTTI and What is the difference between dynamic_cast and
static_cast ?

RTTI means "Run-Time Type Information" and I have no idea about its
definition :(.

arnuld@arch.i-did-not-set--mail-host-address--so-tickle-me wrote:

arnuld@arch.i-did-not-set--mail-host-address--so-tickle-me wrote:

Many of these questions seem to ask for very specific terminology
which can be, IMO, somewhat irrelevant. I have programmed professionally
in C++ for many years (as a hobby for much longer) and I'm pretty
confident I'm a quite capable C++ coder, yet I probably wouldn't get
even half of these questions right.

I can guess the reason for this, but is it really all that relevant to
know *why* array indexing starts from 0?

(Array indexing in C++ is directly inherited from array indexing in C,
and the origin for this form of indexing is most probably related to the
origins of C, which was little more than a "wrapper around asm", and in
most CPU architectures of the time (and even today) array indexing in
assembler is zero-based. However, why would this be relevant to know?)

On Mar 4, 1:53 am, arn...@arch.i-did-not-set--mail-host-address--so-
tickle-me wrote:

yanlinlin wrote:

No specific set of questions is good for a job interview.

If you learn to answer *only* those, it can very easily be figured
out. Then you're toast.

To add to what the others have replied, I would recommend that rather
than trying to memorize the answers to these questions, get a good
book like "Effective C++" and read it from cover to cover. (Have
Stroustrup's "The C++ Programming Language" or another comprehensive
text handy to fill in details.) Keep your list of interview questions
in mind as you read the book. By the time you finish, you'll be much
better off than memorizing answers.

arnuld@arch.i-did-not-set--mail-host-address--so-tickle-me writes:

I don't understand something. Presumably you're going to be quizzing your
potential C++ job applicants on their knowledge.

Shouldn't that mean that you are supposed to know MORE than them, and that
you'd know the answers to these silly questions?

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On Mar 3, 7:34 pm, "Victor Bazarov" comAcast.net> wrote:

On Mar 3, 11:50 pm, "Victor Bazarov" comAcast.net> wrote:

James Kanze wrote:

I was thinking going even further with this, what about using it in a
context that does not call any function or declare any variable? Such as
use as part of the expression given to the sizeof operator :)