Question

Which of the following versions of the polynomial class implementation provides the most space efficient representation for polynomials with a large degree and very few terms, for example: 10x+ x²⁰⁰. Recall that the degree of the polynomial is the largest exponent of the term with a non-zero coefficient. SELECT THE SINGLE BEST ANSWER

1. A static array-based implementation, where only the coefficients are stored in the array, and the exponent of each term is the index of the coefficient in the array. This version was implemented in PA03 part 1.
2. A dynamic array-based implementation, where only the coefficients are stored in the array, and the exponent of each term is the index of the coefficient in the array. The size of the array is changed dynamically at run-time. This version was implemented in PA03 part 2
3. A linked-list based implementation where the coefficient and exponent of each term in the polynomial was explicitly stored in each node of the linked-list. Terms with zero coefficients were not stored. This version was implemented in PA04
4. All the above have the same space efficiency.

Answer 1

Option C is the correct answer:

As this is the linked list type of implementation, here we will have very few linked list elements as we have very few terms but in case of a dynamic or static array, we have to make the arrays of big sizes because we have high degree polynomials.

Thus space will be used wisely by the linked list. Thus option C is the correct answer.

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