How many comparisons does binary search make in the worst case for an array of s

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Question: How many comparisons does binary search make in the worst case for an array of size n?

Options:

Correct Answer: log n

Solution:

In the worst case, binary search makes log n comparisons to find the target or determine its absence.

How many comparisons does binary search make in the worst case for an array of size n?

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.