Recursion Call Stack Visualizer
Overview
The Recursion Call Stack Visualizer demystifies recursive functions by showing exactly what happens during execution. Watch the call stack grow and shrink as functions call themselves, see parameter values at each level, and track return values as they bubble up. Includes classic examples like factorial, fibonacci, tower of hanoi, and binary search with both stack and tree visualizations.
Tips
- Start with factorial(5) to see a simple linear recursion pattern
- Notice how the stack grows until the base case is reached, then returns propagate back up
- Fibonacci shows tree recursion - the same values are computed multiple times (inefficient!)
- Tower of Hanoi demonstrates how recursive solutions can be elegant for complex problems
- Binary search shows how recursion can implement divide-and-conquer efficiently
- Watch the call tree view to see how many function calls are actually made
- Compare fibonacci tree to factorial - notice the exponential branching vs linear calls
- The stack frames show parameter values - watch how they change with each recursive call