What happens if you apply binary search on an unsorted array?
Practice Questions
Q1
What happens if you apply binary search on an unsorted array?
It will always find the element
It may return incorrect results
It will sort the array
It will throw an error
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
What happens if you apply binary search on an unsorted array?
Step 1: Understand what binary search is. It is a method to find an item in a sorted array by repeatedly dividing the search interval in half.
Step 2: Know that binary search only works correctly on sorted arrays. This means the elements must be in a specific order (like smallest to largest).
Step 3: If you try to use binary search on an unsorted array, the algorithm will not be able to find the item correctly because it relies on the order of elements.
Step 4: As a result, you may get a wrong answer or not find the item at all when using binary search on an unsorted array.