Red-Black Trees vs. Splay Trees: Which is Better?

What are the main differences between red-black trees and splay trees?

Red-black trees are balanced binary search trees with strict balancing rules, while splay trees are self-adjusting trees that move frequently accessed elements closer to the root.

In what scenarios would you prefer one over the other?

Red-black trees are preferred for applications requiring guaranteed O(log n) time for insertions, deletions, and lookups. Splay trees are better for scenarios with non-uniform access patterns, as they optimize for recently accessed elements.

Can you explain how the balancing works in red-black trees?

Sure! Red-black trees maintain balance through properties like node color (red or black), ensuring that no two red nodes are adjacent and that every path from the root to the leaves has the same number of black nodes.

What are the advantages of using splay trees?

Splay trees have the advantage of being simple to implement and can perform well with access patterns that exhibit locality, as they bring frequently accessed nodes closer to the root.