Define a recursive function named merge chars, it is passed two str arguments, in which all the characters appear in alphabetic order; it returns a str that contains all the characters in its argument strings, also appearing in alphabetic order.

def merge_chars(str1, str2):

    if not str1 and not str2:

         return ''

    if str1 and (not str2 or str1[0] <= str2[0]):

         return str1[0] + merge_chars(str1[1:], str2)

    else:

         return str2[0] + merge_chars(str1, str2[1:])

Note: It's written in Python3

Explanation:

This line defines the function

def merge_chars(str1, str2):

This checks for empty strings. If yes, it return an empty string

    if not str1 and not str2:

         return ''

The following merge and sorts both strings, recursively

This checks if only one of the strings is not empty

    if str1 and (not str2 or str1[0] <= str2[0]):

         return str1[0] + merge_chars(str1[1:], str2)

This checks if both strings are not empty

    else:

         return str2[0] + merge_chars(str1, str2[1:])

solution:

this situation is called an ip conflict.

data from a server is sent in small bits called packets. in an ip conflict, some packets will end up in one computer while some other packets will end up in another computer.

so…overall none of the computers get the data as the original message or picture being sent by the server cannot be retrieved with only half the packets. so it will show up as an error.

thus the final answer is d.