From f188db1e83186d645b8a1eed418aa55dfe9738c1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: deepshekhardas Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2026 15:05:25 +0530 Subject: [PATCH] fix(searches): handle empty list in exponential_search Fixes IndexError when sorted_collection is empty by returning -1 early before accessing index 0. --- searches/exponential_search.py | 3 +++ 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+) diff --git a/searches/exponential_search.py b/searches/exponential_search.py index ed09b14e101c..c275441e6bba 100644 --- a/searches/exponential_search.py +++ b/searches/exponential_search.py @@ -85,6 +85,9 @@ def exponential_search(sorted_collection: list[int], item: int) -> int: if list(sorted_collection) != sorted(sorted_collection): raise ValueError("sorted_collection must be sorted in ascending order") + if not sorted_collection: + return -1 + if sorted_collection[0] == item: return 0