Pure functions, immutability, higher-order functions, currying, monads, functors, recursion and referential transparency.
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- What is a pure function?
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A function that always produces the same output for the same input and has no side effects.- Name one benefit of using pure functions.
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They are easier to test, reason about, and parallelize because they have no hidden dependencies.- What is a side effect in programming?
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Any observable change outside the function other than its return value, such as modifying global state or performing I/O.- Define referential transparency.
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A property where an expression can be replaced with its resulting value without changing program behavior.- Why does referential transparency matter in functional programming?
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It enables equational reasoning about code, making programs easier to understand, optimize, and refactor.- What is immutability?
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The property that data cannot be changed after creation; instead, operations return new copies with modifications.- Name one advantage of immutable data structures.
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They eliminate bugs from unintended mutations, simplify concurrent programming, and enable effective memoization.- What is a higher-order function?
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A function that takes one or more functions as arguments or returns a function as its result.- Give an example of a higher-order function that returns a function.
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A function that returns a customized function, such as a function factory or a decorator.- What are first-class functions?
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Functions treated as values: they can be assigned to variables, passed as arguments, and returned from other functions.- Define currying.
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The transformation of a function with multiple parameters into a series of single-parameter functions.- What is one benefit of currying?
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It enables partial application, allowing you to create specialized functions by fixing some arguments.- What is partial application?
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The process of fixing some arguments of a function to create a new function with fewer parameters.- How does partial application differ from currying?
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Currying is a language feature that transforms multi-argument functions into nested single-argument functions; partial application is the practice of fixing some arguments.- What is recursion?
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A function calling itself to solve a problem by breaking it into smaller instances of the same problem.
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