What is the worst-case time complexity for inserting an element in an unbalanced

Practice Questions

Q1
What is the worst-case time complexity for inserting an element in an unbalanced binary tree?
  1. O(log n)
  2. O(n)
  3. O(n log n)
  4. O(1)

Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions

What is the worst-case time complexity for inserting an element in an unbalanced binary tree?
  • Step 1: Understand what an unbalanced binary tree is. It is a tree where the height of the left and right subtrees can differ significantly.
  • Step 2: Know that in a binary tree, each node can have at most two children.
  • Step 3: When inserting an element, you start at the root and compare the new value with the current node's value.
  • Step 4: If the new value is less, you move to the left child; if it's greater, you move to the right child.
  • Step 5: Repeat this process until you find an empty spot to insert the new element.
  • Step 6: In the worst case, the tree can become a straight line (like a linked list), where each node has only one child.
  • Step 7: In this case, you may have to traverse all n nodes to find the right spot for the new element.
  • Step 8: Therefore, the worst-case time complexity for inserting an element in an unbalanced binary tree is O(n).
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