Recursion & Iteration

Question 1

What is a recursive function?

Answer 1

A function that calls itself and returns a predetermined value when encountering a base case.

Question 2

What is one advantage and disadvantage of a recursive implementation over an iterative implementation?

Answer 2

Advantage: A recursive implementation allows the task to be divided among many threads
Disadvantage: A recursive implementation has higher overhead than the iterative implementation.

Question 3

What is meant by a recursive subroutine?

Answer 3

It is a unit of program that calls itself.

Question 4

What is iteration?

Answer 4

Iteration is the process of repeating a task to achieve a specific end goal

When iteration is employed, the set of instructions within the loop will keep repeating until a certain condition has been reached or is no longer satisfied

Question 5

What is time complexity?

Answer 5

Time efficiency describes how execution time increases with data size / number of elements