Computer Science I / What Makes an Algorithm Good
Practice question · Select all that apply

The lesson says an algorithm must be finite and definite. Select every description that violates at least one of those two requirements.

Hints
  1. Finiteness means it always stops; definiteness means every step is precise.
  2. Being in pseudocode breaks neither rule, pseudocode is the normal way to state an algorithm.
Show the answer
  • B. A procedure that may loop forever on some inputs
  • C. An instruction that says 'do whatever seems best'
  • D. A step that says 'pick a good value somehow'
Why

Looping forever breaks finiteness; 'somehow' and 'whatever seems best' break definiteness. Pseudocode and a clear if/else break neither, the lesson explicitly says algorithms are usually described in pseudocode.

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