Question

Which of the following is the most widely used external memory data structure?

(a) AVL tree

(b) B-tree

(c) Red-black tree

(d) Both AVL tree and Red-black tree

Question is taken from B-Trees in portion B-Trees of Data Structures & Algorithms I

This question was posed to me in a job interview.

Answer 1

Correct answer is (b) B-tree

The best explanation: In external memory, the data is transferred in form of blocks. These blocks have data valued and pointers. And B-tree can hold both the data values and pointers. So B-tree is used as an external memory data structure.