Which of the following best describes the space complexity of binary search?
Practice Questions
Q1
Which of the following best describes the space complexity of binary search?
O(n)
O(log n)
O(1)
O(n log n)
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
Which of the following best describes the space complexity of binary search?
Step 1: Understand what space complexity means. Space complexity refers to the amount of memory space required by an algorithm to run as a function of the input size.
Step 2: Know that binary search is an algorithm used to find an item in a sorted list by repeatedly dividing the search interval in half.
Step 3: Recognize that binary search can be implemented in two ways: iteratively (using loops) and recursively (using function calls).
Step 4: Focus on the iterative implementation of binary search. In this version, you only need a few variables to keep track of the current position and the search boundaries.
Step 5: Since the iterative version uses a fixed number of variables regardless of the size of the input list, it requires a constant amount of space.
Step 6: Conclude that the space complexity of binary search when implemented iteratively is O(1), meaning it uses constant space.
