/Recursion-nd-Backtracking

Beyond Basics: Mastering Advanced Recursion & Backtracking Techniques || Workshop

Primary LanguageJavaScript

Mastering Recursion & Backtracking Techniques

Day 1 Recording

Watch Day 1 Recording

Day 2 Recording

Watch Day 2 Recording

Introduction

Recursion is a programming technique that allows a function to call itself repeatedly. It's particularly useful for solving problems that have a recursive structure.

How Recursion Works

  1. Recursion involves a function calling itself.
  2. This process continues until a base case is reached, upon which the recursion stops.
  3. Each recursive call contributes to solving a smaller instance of the problem until the base case is met.

Steps to Understand and Approach a Problem

  1. Identify if a problem can be broken down into smaller problems.
  2. Formulate the recurrence relation, if needed.
  3. Visualize the recursive tree.
  4. Analyze the function flow:
    • Understand the stack behavior.
    • Focus on left and right tree calls.
    • Utilize pen and paper to draw trees and pointers repeatedly.
  5. Observe value returns at each step and identify the exit points.

When to Use Recursion

Use recursion when the problem has a recursive structure and can be broken down into similar subproblems.

When Not to Use Recursion

Avoid recursion for problems lacking a recursive structure, as it can lead to inefficiency.

Benefits of Recursion

  • Concise and understandable code.
  • Efficient solution for problems with recursive structure.

Recursion Problems

Easy

      n = a ^ x 
      a = 2, 3, 4
      (2 ^ -31) <= n <= (2 ^ 31) - 1

Medium

Hard