How many comparisons does binary search make in the worst case for an array of s
Practice Questions
Q1
How many comparisons does binary search make in the worst case for an array of size n?
n
log n
n log n
1
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
How many comparisons does binary search make in the worst case for an array of size n?
Step 1: Understand that binary search works on a sorted array.
Step 2: Know that binary search repeatedly divides the array in half to find the target value.
Step 3: Each time the array is divided, the size of the array to search is halved.
Step 4: The process continues until the size of the array is reduced to 1 or the target is found.
Step 5: The number of times you can divide n by 2 until you reach 1 is log base 2 of n, written as log2(n).
Step 6: Therefore, in the worst case, binary search makes log2(n) comparisons.
Binary Search – A search algorithm that finds the position of a target value within a sorted array by repeatedly dividing the search interval in half.
Logarithmic Complexity – The time complexity of binary search is O(log n), indicating that the number of comparisons grows logarithmically with the size of the array.
