Vectorization vs loops in MATLAB - Interactive Practice

Practice - 5 Tasks

1fill in blank

easy

Complete the code to create a vector of squares using vectorization.

MATLAB

x = 1:5;
y = x[1]2;

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

A.^

B^

C*

D.*

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using ^ instead of .^ causes an error because ^ is matrix power.

Using * or .* does multiplication, not power.

In MATLAB, the element-wise power operator is .^. It raises each element of x to the power 2.

2fill in blank

medium

Complete the code to sum all elements of vector a using a loop.

MATLAB

a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
sum_val = 0;
for i = 1:length(a)
    sum_val = sum_val [1] a(i);
end

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

A+

B-

C*

D/

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using - subtracts elements instead of adding.

Using * or / does multiplication or division, which is incorrect here.

To accumulate the sum, add each element to sum_val using the + operator.

3fill in blank

hard

Fix the error in the loop that multiplies each element by 2 and stores in b.

MATLAB

a = [1, 2, 3];
b = zeros(size(a));
for i = 1:length(a)
    b(i) = a[1] 2;
end

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

A.^

B.*

C^

D*

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using .* causes an error because a is scalar inside the loop.

Using ^ or .^ is for power, not multiplication.

Inside a loop, * is used for scalar multiplication. The dot operator is not needed here.

4fill in blank

hard

Fill both blanks to create a vector c with elements doubled using vectorization and then sum them.

MATLAB

a = [1, 2, 3, 4];
c = a[1] 2;
total = sum(c[2]);

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

A.*

B()

C[]

D+

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using * instead of .* causes error for vectors.

Using square brackets [] instead of parentheses for function calls.

Use .* for element-wise multiplication and () to call the sum function.

5fill in blank

hard

Fill all three blanks to create a vector of squares using vectorization, then filter values greater than 10.

MATLAB

x = 1:6;
y = x[1] 2;
z = y(y [2] 10);
result = z[3];

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

A.^

B>

C'

D.+

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using ^ instead of .^ causes matrix power error.

Using < or <= instead of > changes the filter condition.

Forgetting to transpose if needed for output shape.

Use .^ for element-wise power, > to filter values greater than 10, and ' to transpose the result.