What is the time complexity of searching in an AVL tree?

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What is the time complexity of searching in an AVL tree?

The time complexity of searching in an AVL tree is O(log n), where n is the number of nodes in the tree.

AVL trees are balanced binary search trees that maintain a balance factor for each node, ensuring that the heights of the left and right subtrees differ by at most 1. This balance factor allows for efficient searching operations.

During a search in an AVL tree, we start at the root and compare the target value with the current node's value. If the target value is smaller, we move to the left subtree; if it is larger, we move to the right subtree. This process continues until we find the target value or reach a leaf node.

Due to the balanced nature of AVL trees, the height of the tree is always logarithmic with respect to the number of nodes. As a result, the search operation can eliminate half of the remaining nodes at each step, leading to a time complexity of O(log n).

In summary, searching in an AVL tree has a time complexity of O(log n), making it an efficient data structure for retrieval operations.