Question 9390 – Heap-Tree

A 3-ary max heap is like a binary max heap, but instead of 2 children, nodes have 3 children. A 3-ary heap can be represented by an array as follows: The root is stored in the first location, a[0], nodes in the next level, from left to right, is stored from a[1] to a[3]. The nodes from the second level of the tree from left to right are stored from a[4] location onward. An item x can be inserted into a 3-ary heap containing n items by placing x in the location a[n] and pushing it up the tree to satisfy the heap property.

Suppose the elements 7, 2, 10 and 4 are inserted, in that order, into the valid 3-ary max heap found in the above question, Q.76. Which one of the following is the sequence of items in the array representing the resultant heap?

Correct Answer: A