C++ Institute CPA-21-02 Exam - Topic 1 Question 46 Discussion

Actual exam question for C++ Institute's CPA-21-02 exam

Question #: 46
Topic #: 1

[All CPA-21-02 Questions]

What happens when you attempt to compile and run the following code?

#include

using namespace std;

int main() {

float i = 1.0 / 2 * 2 / 1 * 2 / 4 * 4 / 2;

cout << i;

return 0;

}

AIt prints: 0

BIt prints: 1

CIt prints: 2

DIt prints: 0.5

Show Suggested Answer

Suggested Answer: B

by Lindsey at Nov 01, 2025, 01:22 AM

Limited Time Offer

25%

Off

Get Premium CPA-21-02 Questions as Interactive Web-Based Practice Test or PDF

Contribute your Thoughts:

Submit Cancel

Ira

5 months ago

No way, it should definitely be 0.5 based on the operations.

upvoted 0 times

...

Della

6 months ago

But isn't it possible it rounds down to 0?

upvoted 0 times

...

Krissy

6 months ago

The order of operations makes it 1.

upvoted 0 times

...

Rutha

6 months ago

Wait, really? I thought it would be 0!

upvoted 0 times

...

Stefania

7 months ago

Definitely prints 1, no doubt about it.

upvoted 0 times

...

Alethea

7 months ago

I thought it would be 0.5, but I guess not!

upvoted 0 times

...

Otis

7 months ago

It prints: 1

upvoted 0 times

...

Ollie

7 months ago

Definitely D. The floating-point division ensures that the final result is 0.5, not some integer value.

upvoted 0 times

...

Sherly

7 months ago

D is the correct answer. The floating-point division operations preserve the decimal precision, resulting in the output 0.5.

upvoted 0 times

...

Candra

7 months ago

Haha, this is a classic trick question. The answer is clearly D, 0.5. Who would've thought that floating-point arithmetic could be so tricky?

upvoted 0 times

...

Jeniffer

8 months ago

I think the answer is B. The expression simplifies to 1 after the integer division operations.

upvoted 0 times

...

Nilsa

8 months ago

The answer is D. The expression 1.0 / 2 * 2 / 1 * 2 / 4 * 4 / 2 evaluates to 0.5.

upvoted 0 times

...

Eladia

8 months ago

I thought it would print 0.5, but now I'm second-guessing if the float type changes anything in the calculations.

upvoted 0 times

...

Weldon

8 months ago

I feel like this could print 0 because of how the divisions work out, but I can't recall the exact calculations.

upvoted 0 times

...

Elke

8 months ago

I agree, the calculations seem to lead to that.

upvoted 0 times

...

Marsha

9 months ago

I remember a similar question where division and multiplication were involved, and it ended up being 1. Maybe that's the case here too?

upvoted 0 times

...

Roxane

9 months ago

I think it prints: 0.5.

upvoted 0 times

...

Chandra

9 months ago

I think the order of operations might affect the result, but I'm not entirely sure how it works with floats.

upvoted 0 times

...

Carry

10 months ago

I've got a strategy - I'll work out the math by hand first, then test it in the code to see if I'm right.

upvoted 0 times

...

Alyce

10 months ago

I'm a bit confused by the mix of floats and integers. I'll need to double-check my understanding of how those interact.

upvoted 0 times

...

Muriel

10 months ago

Okay, let me think this through. I'm going to focus on the math first and then see how the output gets printed.

upvoted 0 times

...

Stevie

10 months ago

Hmm, this looks like it might involve some integer division. I'll need to be careful with that.

upvoted 0 times

...

Jenise

10 months ago

I'm not sure about this one. The order of operations could be tricky, but I think I'll try to work it out step-by-step.

upvoted 0 times

Aaron

5 months ago

The order of operations is confusing!

upvoted 0 times

...

Rasheeda

5 months ago

I’m leaning towards 0.5.

upvoted 0 times

...

Donette

5 months ago

I think it will print 1.

upvoted 0 times

...

Santos

9 months ago

I’m going with 2.

upvoted 0 times

...

Abel

9 months ago

I believe it will be 0.

upvoted 0 times

...