What is the space complexity of the iterative version of binary search?
Practice Questions
Q1
What is the space complexity of the iterative version of binary search?
O(n)
O(log n)
O(1)
O(n log n)
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
What is the space complexity of the iterative version of binary search?
Step 1: Understand what binary search is. It is a method to find a specific value in a sorted list by repeatedly dividing the search interval in half.
Step 2: Know that there are two versions of binary search: iterative and recursive. We are focusing on the iterative version.
Step 3: In the iterative version, we use a loop to repeatedly check the middle element of the list until we find the target value or determine it is not present.
Step 4: Identify what space complexity means. It refers to the amount of memory space required by an algorithm as a function of the input size.
Step 5: In the iterative binary search, we only use a few variables to keep track of the current position, the start, and the end of the search interval.
Step 6: Since the number of variables does not change with the size of the input list, the space used remains constant.
Step 7: Therefore, the space complexity of the iterative version of binary search is O(1), which means it uses a constant amount of space.
