What is the difference between tail recursion and normal recursion?

Can you explain the difference between tail recursion and normal recursion?

Sure! Tail recursion is a specific type of recursion where the recursive call is the last operation in the function. In contrast, normal recursion can have additional operations after the recursive call.

Why is tail recursion more efficient?

Tail recursion can be optimized by the compiler to avoid adding a new stack frame for each call, which reduces memory usage and prevents stack overflow.

Can you give me an example of tail recursion?

Absolutely! Here's a simple example in Python:

def factorial_tail(n, accumulator=1):
    if n == 0:
        return accumulator
    return factorial_tail(n-1, n * accumulator)

What about normal recursion? Can you show me that too?

Of course! Here's a normal recursive factorial function:

def factorial(n):
    if n == 0:
        return 1
    return n * factorial(n-1)