What is the worst-case time complexity of inserting an element into a binary sea
Practice Questions
Q1
What is the worst-case time complexity of inserting an element into a binary search tree?
O(log n)
O(n)
O(n log n)
O(1)
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
What is the worst-case time complexity of inserting an element into a binary search tree?
Step 1: Understand what a binary search tree (BST) is. A BST is a data structure where each node has at most two children, and the left child is less than the parent node, while the right child is greater.
Step 2: Know that when we insert an element into a BST, we start at the root and compare the new element with the current node's value.
Step 3: If the new element is smaller, we move to the left child; if it's larger, we move to the right child.
Step 4: We continue this process until we find an empty spot where the new element can be inserted.
Step 5: In the worst-case scenario, the BST becomes unbalanced, resembling a linked list. This happens when we insert elements in a sorted order (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, ...).
Step 6: In this unbalanced case, we may have to traverse all n nodes to find the correct spot for the new element, leading to a time complexity of O(n).
