Skip to Secondary Navigation | Skip To Content

Data Structures Proficiency Exam

A satisfactory score on this exam will satisfy the Data Structures requirement for the MS programs in Computer Science or Information Science and Technology. The exam is open to applicants to the MS program in Computer Science and the MS program in Information Systems and Technology. It is intended for students who have learned Data Structures by experience rather than in a class through a regionally accredited institution. Some exam questions are written in Java, the rest are language independent. Students may use JAVA or C++ to write the exam.

You are allowed to take this exam once. Failing this exam means that you will have to take 605.202 at JHU/WSE/EPP or the equivalent course at a regionally accredited school.

This is a closed book exam. You are allowed one 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of notes for reference. You need to write clear, concise Java or C++ code where required. Since not every Data Structures course covers every topic, the scoring is set up to allowing the exam to be passed even though a student may not know one area of the material. The exam will not be returned to you. You will be notified only if you have passed or failed.

Sample exams are not available.

Study material on the Data Structures Proficiency Exam is available electronically by clicking on links under the Exam Topics. These links point to copies of lecture notes from a previous semester of the course. The lecture notes require an Adobe Reader. Please contact E. Chlan to obtain the password. This material is not intended to limit the scope of the exam material, but to help students form a well educated opinion about their personal suitability as exam candidates.

You may expect a mixture of question types on the exam, including Multiple Choice, True/False, Fill-in-the-Blank, discussion, and manipulation. You can also expect questions in which you will need to write complete functions. You may also need to assess and describe the functionality or output of a piece of code. Approximately 30% of the exam will be questions requiring the student to write code. Approximately 40% of the exam will be Objective questions like True/False or Multiple Choice. The remaining 40% of the exam will be a mix of manipulation and discussion questions. Examples of a manipulation question would be: 1) perform a Quick sort on the following list of numbers, or 2) use the following data to build a ______ tree.

Exam Topics

References

The following texts are good references if needed:

Java

  • T. A. Standish, Data Structures in JAVA, Addison Wesley, Chapters 3.5 - 10, Appendix B
  • M. T. Goodrich and R. Tomassia, Data Structures and Algorithms in JAVA, J. Wiley, Chapters 2-8 plus selections from 9-14
  • Y. Langsam, A. M. Tenenbaum and M. J. Augenstein, Data Structures Using Java, Prentice-Hall, Chapters 1-7
  • Mark Alan Weiss, Data Structures and Problem Solving Using JAVA, Addison Wesley

C++

  • W. Ford and W. Topp, Data Structures with C++, Prentice-Hall, Chapters 3-5, 8-11, 13-14
  • Y. Langsam, A. M. Tenenbaum and M. J. Augenstein, Data Structures Using C and C++, 2nd Ed. Prentice-Hall, Chapters 1-7
  • F. M. Carrano, Data Abstraction and Problem Solving with C++: Walls and Mirrors

C and Pascal

  • A. M. Tenenbaum and M. J. Augenstein, Data Structures Using C, 2nd Ed. Prentice-Hall, Chapters 1-7
  • A. M. Tenenbaum and M. J. Augenstein, Data Structures Using Pascal, 2nd Ed. Prentice-Hall, Chapters 1-8
Academic Advising: