What is the primary advantage of using binary search over linear search?

Practice Questions

Q1
What is the primary advantage of using binary search over linear search?
  1. Binary search is easier to implement.
  2. Binary search works on unsorted arrays.
  3. Binary search has a time complexity of O(log n).
  4. Binary search can find all occurrences of an element.

Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions

What is the primary advantage of using binary search over linear search?
  • Step 1: Understand what linear search is. Linear search checks each item in a list one by one until it finds the target item or reaches the end of the list.
  • Step 2: Know the time complexity of linear search. Linear search has a time complexity of O(n), which means if there are n items, it may check all n items in the worst case.
  • Step 3: Understand what binary search is. Binary search works on sorted lists by repeatedly dividing the list in half to find the target item.
  • Step 4: Know the time complexity of binary search. Binary search has a time complexity of O(log n), which means it reduces the number of items to check significantly with each step.
  • Step 5: Compare the two. For large datasets, O(log n) (binary search) is much faster than O(n) (linear search) because it checks far fewer items.
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