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Date May 2019 Marks available 2 Reference code 19M.1.HL.TZ0.12
Level HL Paper 1 Time zone no time zone
Command term Outline Question number 12 Adapted from N/A

Question

Outline why a binary tree would be a good choice of data structure for maintaining an address book.

Markscheme

Award [2 max].
Time efficient searching / traversing for a contact in an address book;
Each iteration / comparison allows the size of the search to be reduced (by skipping about half of the remaining contacts);

Fast/easy addition / removal of contacts in an address book;
Quick search for the leaf node / empty node where a new contact can be placed / for the node containing the contact to be deleted;

Contacts can be listed / output in alphabetical order/ fast sorting;
using inorder traversal;

Examiners report

A few candidates provided too vague, out-of-context answers.

Syllabus sections

Topic 5: Abstract data structures » 5.1 Abstract data structures
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Topic 5: Abstract data structures

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