Ordering matters?

What this C++ code-output question tests

This is a medium-difficulty question that probes your working knowledge of C++ language semantics and the order in which operations execute. Rather than ask you to write code from scratch, it asks you to read and predict behaviour — a skill that matters just as much in code review and debugging as in implementation.

Questions of this type are common in technical interviews because they quickly reveal whether a candidate has internalised the rules of the language or merely memorised syntax. A correct answer requires careful attention to operator precedence, evaluation order, and side effects across statements.

• Statement sequencing and control flow
• Operator precedence and associativity
• Side effects and order of evaluation
• Output stream behaviour