Parsing Techniques: Top-down and Bottom-up Parsing MCQs January 8, 2026December 14, 2024 by u930973931_answers 15 min Score: 0 Attempted: 0/15 Subscribe 1. What is the main difference between top-down parsing and bottom-up parsing? (A) Top-down parsing starts from the start symbol, while bottom-up parsing starts from the input string. (B) Bottom-up parsing is faster than top-down parsing. (C) Top-down parsing processes the entire string before deriving rules. (D) Bottom-up parsing never uses a stack for intermediate storage. 2. Which of the following is an example of a top-down parsing method? (A) LR Parsing (B) LL Parsing (C) SLR Parsing (D) LALR Parsing 3. In bottom-up parsing, the parsing process: (A) Works from the start symbol to the input string (B) Derives the start symbol from the input string (C) Continually refines the input string to reach a single start symbol (D) Analyzes the syntax tree directly from top to bottom 4. Which of the following is NOT a property of top-down parsing? (A) It processes the input from the leaves to the root. (B) It often uses recursive descent techniques. (C) It can backtrack when an invalid derivation is encountered. (D) It constructs the parse tree from the root to the leaves. 5. Which of the following parsing techniques requires no backtracking and uses a single lookahead symbol? (A) SLR Parsing (B) LR Parsing (C) Recursive Descent Parsing (D) LL(1) Parsing 6. Which parsing technique is generally more efficient for a larger set of grammars? (A) Top-down parsing (B) LL(1) Parsing (C) Bottom-up parsing (D) Recursive Descent Parsing 7. Which of the following is a disadvantage of top-down parsing? (A) It requires less memory compared to bottom-up parsing. (B) It always produces a leftmost derivation. (C) It cannot handle left-recursive grammars easily. (D) It is faster than bottom-up parsing in all cases. 8. In the context of LL(1) parsing, the “1” refers to: (A) The number of non-terminal symbols in the grammar (B) The number of parsing techniques used (C) The number of symbols that the parser looks ahead during parsing (D) The maximum recursion depth in the grammar 9. Which of the following is a characteristic of bottom-up parsing? (A) It uses left recursion only. (B) It starts from the input and constructs the parse tree bottom to top. (C) It is easy to implement using recursive functions. (D) It never requires a lookahead symbol. 10. Which of the following is true about LR parsing? (A) It is a top-down parsing technique. (B) It uses a stack to store intermediate parsing results. (C) It is more suitable for grammars with left recursion. (D) It does not require lookahead symbols. 11. Which type of grammar can be parsed using top-down parsing methods? (A) Ambiguous grammars (B) Left-recursive grammars (C) Non-context-free grammars (D) LL(1) grammars 12. Which of the following is a key advantage of bottom-up parsing over top-down parsing? (A) Bottom-up parsing requires less memory. (B) Bottom-up parsing is always faster. (C) Bottom-up parsing handles left recursion without modification. (D) Bottom-up parsing requires less lookahead than top-down parsing. 13. What is a “shift-reduce” operation used in bottom-up parsing? (A) Shifting involves moving a non-terminal symbol to the stack, while reduce involves applying a production rule. (B) Shift involves replacing a terminal symbol with a non-terminal, while reduce removes the non-terminal. (C) Shift involves pushing input symbols onto a stack, while reduce involves removing a non-terminal symbol and replacing it with a rule. (D) Shift involves replacing the start symbol with terminal symbols only. 14. Which of the following is an example of a bottom-up parsing technique? (A) Recursive Descent Parsing (B) SLR Parsing (C) LL(1) Parsing (D) Predictive Parsing 15. Which of the following statements is true for a recursive descent parser? (A) It is a top-down parsing technique (B) It always parses left-recursive grammars (C) It is a bottom-up parser (D) It can parse grammars with multiple symbols in each production rule