Should you use recursion or iteration for factorial in JavaScript?
Iteration. Factorial is a simple loop. Recursion adds function call overhead and stack growth with no readability benefit. Use recursion for trees and complex structures; iteration for simple mathematical operations.
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More FAQs in Recursion Best Practices and Pitfalls
Always define a base case, ensure progress toward the base case, use memoization for overlapping subproblems, prefer iteration for simple problems, and use recursion for trees and divide-and-conquer.
No base case (infinite recursion, stack overflow), no progress toward the base case, stack overflow for deep recursion, redundant computation without memoization, and mutating shared state across recursive calls.
Ensure the base case is reached before the stack limit (usually 10,000-20,000 frames). For deep recursion, use iteration, trampolines, or tail call optimization (not available in most JS engines). Keep recursion shallow.
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