GATE CS 2025 Set 1 Q.12: Lexical Analysis

Which ONE of the following statements is FALSE regarding the symbol table?

Symbol table is responsible for keeping track of the scope of variables.

Symbol table can be implemented using a binary search tree.

Symbol table is not required after the parsing phase.

Symbol table is created during the lexical analysis phase.

Official answer and solution

Solution

Review how the symbol table is created, organized, and accessed across lexical, syntax, semantic, and code-generation phases of a compiler.

(A) True: The symbol table tracks identifier attributes including variable scope.
(B) True: A symbol table can be implemented using hash tables, binary search trees, or linear lists.
(C) FALSE: The symbol table is heavily used after parsing during semantic analysis (type checking), intermediate code generation, and target code generation (storage offsets and address resolution).
(D) True: Initial entries for identifiers are created in the symbol table during lexical analysis.

Final answer

Option (C)

The answer is the one in the official GATE answer key. The solution is this site's own explanation.

Paper: GATE 2025 Computer Science and Information Technology - Session 1 (CS1)
Question: 12 of 65
Section: Computer Science and Information Technology

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