Q: What is the value of the expression a <<= 2 using the compound assignment operator in Java? a = 5  

In Java, the expression a <<= 2 is a compound assignment operator that performs a left shift on the variable a by the number of bits specified on the right side of the <<= operator. It is equivalent to the expression a = a << 2.

Here's an example in Java:

public class CompoundAssignmentExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Declare variables
        int a = 5;

        // Compound assignment (left shift by 2 bits)
        a <<= 2;

        // Display the result
        System.out.println("The value of a after a <<= 2 is: " + a);
    }
}

In this example, if a is initially 5, after the operation, the value of a will be 20. This is because the binary representation of 5 is 0000 0101, and left-shifting it by 2 bits results in 0001 0100, which is 20 in decimal.