What is the purpose of the base case in a recursive function?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. To terminate recursion and prevent infinite stack overflow
- Step 1: Define the operational structure of recursive algorithms: recursive step and base case.
- Step 2: The base case specifies a terminal condition where the function returns a direct value without further recursive calls, halting recursion and preventing infinite loops and call stack overflow.
Answer
To terminate recursion and prevent infinite stack overflow.
Why not the others: Base cases do not allocate heap memory, accelerate speed, or perform automatic compiler tail-call loop conversion.
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