What this C++ data-type question tests
This is an easy question that probes foundational knowledge of C++ integer types and how they behave under arithmetic operations. Even experienced developers occasionally trip over the subtle rules governing type promotion, overflow, and literal suffixes—especially when moving between platforms or codebases.
To answer questions like this one, you need to reason carefully about which type a value has at each step of a computation, how the compiler resolves operations between types of different widths, and what the standard guarantees about the result. Getting this right is a prerequisite for writing correct systems code, and interviewers use it as a quick calibration of whether a candidate is careless with types or thinks them through deliberately.
- Integer literal suffixes and type deduction
- Type promotion rules in arithmetic expressions
- Overflow behaviour and undefined behaviour