Question

What is a hash function?

(a) A function has allocated memory to keys

(b) A function that computes the location of the key in the array

(c) A function that creates an array

(d) A function that computes the location of the values in the array

The origin of the question is Hash Tables in portion Hash Tables of Data Structures & Algorithms I

This question was addressed to me during an interview.

Answer 1

Right choice is (b) A function that computes the location of the key in the array

Easy explanation - In a hash table, there are fewer array positions than the keys, so the position of the key in the array has to be computed, this is done using the hash function.