Practice Searching in CS Thinking
Use these practice problems to test your method after reviewing the concept explanation and worked examples.
Quick Recap
The process of locating a specific item or value within a collection of data using a systematic strategy.
Looking for a book on a shelf, a name in a list, a file on your computer.
Example 1
mediumUse linear search to find the value 7 in the list [3, 9, 7, 1, 5]. How many comparisons are needed?
Example 2
mediumUse binary search to find 23 in the sorted list [5, 10, 15, 20, 23, 30, 35]. Show each step.
Example 3
mediumCan binary search be used on the unsorted list [8, 2, 5, 1, 9]? Why or why not?
Example 4
hardA sorted list has 128 elements. In the worst case, about how many comparisons does binary search need, and how does that compare with linear search?