FC0-U71 Software Development Concepts Practice Question
A developer is writing a program that stores a collection of unique student IDs. The program needs to quickly look up a student by ID and does not require the IDs to be stored in any particular order. Which data structure is most appropriate for this task?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Dictionary
A dictionary (hash map) provides fast key-based lookups and automatically handles uniqueness.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Dictionary
Why this is correct
Dictionaries map keys to values and provide O(1) average lookup.
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Queue
Why it's wrong here
Queues are FIFO and not suitable for random access by key.
- ✗
Array
Why it's wrong here
Arrays require linear search for lookups and allow duplicates.
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Stack
Why it's wrong here
Stacks are LIFO and not designed for key-based lookups.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This FC0-U71 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the FC0-U71 exam.