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Understanding code output in C++ — a medium-difficulty reading comprehension question

This is a medium-difficulty code-reading question that tests your ability to trace execution flow and predict output from a C++ snippet. Rather than writing code from scratch, you must mentally execute the program, track variable state, and understand the order and format of any console output.

Questions like this appear in quant interviews to verify that candidates read code carefully and understand language semantics — operator precedence, control flow, scope, and side effects — without running it. They are particularly common in C++ interviews, where subtle differences in syntax can dramatically change behaviour.

• Statement execution order and sequencing
• Variable scope and lifetime
• Output stream formatting and buffering
• Operator precedence and associativity