ITPEC FE Subject B April 2024 Question 11

Selection sort algorithm with ascending order.

This is a classic selection sort. The outer loop picks position i, and the inner loop finds the minimum in the unsorted portion.

Blank A: `i + 1`
The inner loop j should start searching from i + 1 — the position right after the current candidate. Position i is already assigned to minPos, so we only need to scan the remaining unsorted elements.

Blank B: `<`
Since we sort in ascending order, we look for the smallest element: data[j] < data[minPos].

Blank C: `data[i]`
After finding the minimum, we swap data[i] with data[minPos]:
- temp ← data[i]
- data[i] ← data[minPos]
- data[minPos] ← temp

Why not others:
- (a–d) A = 1 — would re-scan the already sorted portion every iteration, breaking the algorithm
- (c, d, g, h) B = > — would find the maximum, producing descending order
- (f) C = data[i + 1] — swaps with the wrong position; should swap with data[i], not data[i + 1]

Key rule: In selection sort, the inner loop always starts after the current position (i + 1), and the comparison direction (< or >) determines ascending vs descending order.

AI-generated — may contain errors