TradeWeb c++IV

100% QnA interview. No coding no white-board no ECT no BP no algo no data structure.

System is Multi-threaded VC++/MSSQL.

One technical interviewer only. (The other 2 are behavior interviewers.) He is a director and looks very technical. I have met perhaps 3 to 5 interviewers focused on the fundamentals of a language/compiler. They pick one of 10 important parts of a language (like java, c++ or c#) and try to determine how well a candidate understands the key details and the rationales.

Below, Q’s are questions from this interviewer. A’s are my answers/guesses.

Q1: let’s talk about non-virtual dtor. You said there are problems in deleting a subclass instance via a base class pointer. Show an example.
(Now I think giving a non-trivial example requires non-trivial knowledge.)
A: Eg: subclass holds some resources to be explicitly released (via close() or disconnect()) in its dtor, but in our scenario only the base dtor is called. Subclass dtor is not invoked.

Q1b: if subclass dtor is invoked, does it always run the base dtor?
%%A: Yes guaranteed. See my blogpost.

Q1c: if a subclass dtor is virtual and you delete an instance via a subclass ptr, you said this is good and subclass dtor will run, so is the “virtual” unnecessary? In this case, what’s the difference between virtual dtor  vs non-virtual dtor?
%%A: yes in both cases the subclass dtor runs.  If your system is written such that you delete a subclass instance only via a subclass ptr and never superclass ptr, then drop the “virtual” to improve runtime performance.

Q3: Let’s talk about a static member function sf2() in class Base. If you have a reference to a Base instance, Can you call myInstance.sf2()?
A: yes

Q3b: if Base and Der both have a static method sf2()?
A: subclass sf2 tends to hide Base sf2. Static type of myInstance variable is used to determine which version is used.

Q3c: how about myPtr->sf2()? Obscure details that I don’t want to spend too much time on.
%%A: looks very odd, but if it compiles, then it’s static, never dynamic, binding, since there’s no ‘virtual’. See my code in https://github.com/tiger40490/repo1/tree/cpp1/cpp/lang_misc

Q4: when must you use the pointer “this”? Obscure details that I don’t want to spend too much time on.
%%A: ctor chaining? Actually chaining is supported in c++11 but not using “this”.
A: if there’s a field and a local variable of the same name, I use “this->” to disambiguate. CORRECT:) See
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22832001/access-member-field-with-same-name-as-local-variable-or-argument
A: in my ctor (or method), i may want to print my address. Yes you can usually do that in the caller afterwards but not always
A (hindsight): Similarly, in my ctor (or method) I may want to conditionally save my address in some container. The conditional logic is not doable after the ctor.
A (hindsight): if I know the host object is in an array, I could do array arithmetic using “this” with precaution.
A: delete this. I have seen people doing it.
A (hindsight): CRTP
A (hindsight): if parent class has a const method m1() and non-const overload m1(), you can cast “this” to call either of them.
A (hindsight): what if inside a method you need to access a parent object field hidden by a host object field? Can you cast “this”? Yes tested but not a “must” use case. Alternative solution is B::nonStaticField
AA: sometimes you must return *this where the return type is HostClass&

Q4b: can you think of an example of using “this” to avoid access violation?

Q4h: why would anyone use ctor chaining? Why not call a common (non-static) setter method s2() from multiple ctors of the same class?
A: that setter has to be non-static!

Q4i: You think ctor should not call a non-static method?
%%A: it can, but I don’t do it. The host object is half-initialized, so the setter method must strictly perform field initialization and nothing else.

Q5: why do people use class templates? Note — Interviewer didn’t ask function templates.
%%A: avoid the cost of virtual functions

Q5b: Let’s look at using both class hierarchy and class templates.
%%A: not a good idea to combine them. STL has probably no virtual functions.

Q5c: Let’s see. You said you have a bunch of “payload” classes PL1/PL2/… and you want to use a container of PL1 and another container of PL2. Ok You said that’s a common use case of class templates unrelated to virtual functions. Suppose the container template requires each payload class to implement a method f2(). If f2 is provided by a base class, wouldn’t it be easier (can be virtual or non-virtual)?
A: If there’s a family of payload classes, like Shape, Rectangle, Square… then I feel it’s best practice to use a container of smart pointers. I think it reduces the risk of slicing, among other benefits.
A: if the payload classes don’t form a family hierarchy, then there is probably some template meta-programming technique to provide a default implementation of f2(). I’m no expert on template meta-programming.