How does recursion affect performance?

Can you explain how recursion affects the performance of a program?

Recursion can impact performance due to overhead from function calls and memory usage for each call stack.

What are the advantages of using recursion despite its performance costs?

Recursion can lead to cleaner, more readable code and can simplify complex problems like tree traversals.

Are there specific scenarios where recursion is preferred over iteration?

Yes, recursion is often preferred in scenarios like depth-first search in trees or when solving problems that have a natural recursive structure.

How can I optimize recursive functions to improve performance?

You can optimize recursive functions using techniques like memoization or converting them to iterative solutions.