Official PYQ · 2008Q60Programming in CMCQ1 mark

GATE CS 2008 Q60 — Programming in C

What is printed by the following C program?

int f(int x, int *py, int **ppz)			
{						                    	
    int y, z;					                		
    **ppz += 1; z = **ppz;		 // corrected z = *ppz; to z = **ppz;                
    *py += 2; y = *py;					                	
    x += 3;					                    	
    return x+y+z;
}

void main()
{
    int c, *b, **a;
    c = 4; b = &c; a = &b;
    printf("%d", f(c, b, a));
    	
}

View worked solution

Answer: B

Let's trace the execution of the program step-by-step:

1. Inside main():

c = 4
b points to c (i.e., *b is c)
a points to b (i.e., **a is c)

When calling f(c, b, a):

x is passed by value, so x = 4 initially. Changes to x do not affect c.
py points to c (via b). Modifying *py modifies c.
ppz points to c (via a and b). Modifying **ppz modifies c.

2. Inside f():

**ppz += 1;: Since **ppz refers to c, c becomes $4 + 1 = 5$ .
z = **ppz;: z becomes $5$ .
*py += 2;: Since *py refers to c, c becomes $5 + 2 = 7$ .
y = *py;: y becomes $7$ .
x += 3;: The local variable x becomes $4 + 3 = 7$ .

3. Return value:

The function returns x + y + z, which is $7 + 7 + 5 = 19$ . Therefore, the program prints 19.

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Published 10 Oct 2026

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