Question

khan academy
level 3
1 streak
the video sharing site youtube originally stored the number of video views
in a 32 - bit signed integer.
then the viral hit \gangnam style\ received more than 2,147,483,647
views (more than any other video at that time), and youtube could not
display an accurate number of views until they changed their code.
what is the best explanation of what happened?
choose 1 answer:
a integer overflow error
b round - off error in floating - point arithmetic
c limited precision of floating - point numbers
do 4 problems skip

Explanation:

A 32-bit signed integer has a maximum value of 2,147,483,647. When "Gangnam Style" exceeded this number of views, the integer could not hold the value, causing an overflow error—this is why YouTube couldn’t display accurate views until updating their code. Options B and C relate to floating-point numbers, which weren’t used here (YouTube stored views as integers). Thus, integer overflow is the correct explanation.

Answer:

A. Integer overflow error