Understanding const and virtual method overrides in C++
This is an easy C++ language-knowledge question that tests your grasp of const correctness and virtual method resolution. It's the kind of question that appears in technical screens at firms where code quality and correctness matter, because misunderstanding const semantics or virtual dispatch can lead to subtle bugs in production systems.
The question asks you to reason about how const qualification interacts with method overriding in a class hierarchy. Specifically, it probes whether you understand the rules governing when a derived-class method correctly overrides a base-class virtual method, and how const affects that relationship. Strong answers require clarity on the method signature matching rules that C++ enforces.
- const correctness and method signatures
- Virtual method dispatch and the vtable
- Override rules and signature compatibility