Two ways to solve Fibonacci
builtbyjosh
Posted on August 30, 2021
A very common question that you may come across during a coding interview is to find the Fibonacci sequence with a given number. The Fibonacci sequence is a set of numbers that starts with a one or a zero, followed by a one, and proceeds based on the rule that each number (called a Fibonacci number) is equal to the sum of the preceding two numbers. If the Fibonacci sequence is denoted F (n), where n is the first term in the sequence, the following equation obtains for n = 0, where the first two terms are defined as 0 and 1 by convention:
F (0) = 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 …
So during the interview, you will be asked:
Given a number N return the index value of the Fibonacci sequence, where the sequence is:
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, …
After a quick look, you can easily notice that the pattern of the sequence is that each value is the sum of the 2 previous values, which means that for N=5 → 2+3 or in maths:
F(n) = F(n-1) + F(n-2)
The easiest way to accomplish this is with a simple loop:
let fibonacci = (num) => {
let a = 1;
let b = 0;
let temp;
while ( num >= 0) {
temp = a;
a = a + b;
b = temp;
num--
}
return b;
}
With this solution, we calculate the next number by adding the current number to the old number. And this gives you an O(n) time complexity. But there is a faster approach to the problem. And that approach is called recursion.
let fibonacci = (num) => {
if (num <= 1) return 1;
return fibonacci(num - 1) + fibonacci(num - 2);
}
With the recursive function, we go to an O(2^n) time complexity. So we have increased the complexity exponentially. But we are able to solve the question in only 3 lines code.
Posted on August 30, 2021
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