What is the space complexity of Quick Sort in the average case?
Practice Questions
Q1
What is the space complexity of Quick Sort in the average case?
O(1)
O(n)
O(log n)
O(n log n)
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
What is the space complexity of Quick Sort in the average case?
Step 1: Understand what Quick Sort is. Quick Sort is a sorting algorithm that works by selecting a 'pivot' element and partitioning the array into two parts: elements less than the pivot and elements greater than the pivot.
Step 2: Recognize that Quick Sort uses recursion. This means that when Quick Sort calls itself to sort the two parts, it creates a new layer in memory for each call.
Step 3: Identify the depth of the recursion. In the average case, Quick Sort divides the array into two roughly equal parts each time, leading to a recursion depth of about log(n), where n is the number of elements in the array.
Step 4: Understand what space complexity means. Space complexity refers to the amount of memory space required by an algorithm as a function of the input size.
Step 5: Conclude that the space used for the recursive calls (the stack space) is O(log n) in the average case because the maximum depth of the recursion is log(n).
