Question
Which practice avoids a common mistake with Topological Sort?
- Ignore the Topological Sort issue and rely on team discipline instead of APIs or contracts.
- Do not claim you have a valid topological order without first handling or detecting cycles.
- Silence the Topological Sort problem by using raw types, broad catches, or shared mutable state.
- Prefer the version of Topological Sort that makes behavior less predictable as long as the code compiles.
Hint
Look for the option that protects correctness instead of hiding the problem.
Answer and rationale
Correct answer: B. Do not claim you have a valid topological order without first handling or detecting cycles.
Do not claim you have a valid topological order without first handling or detecting cycles. This is a common failure mode in real Java code and a frequent interview follow-up.
Track: Java