What type of searching algorithm is binary search?

Binary search is classified as a logarithmic search method due to its efficiency in finding an element within a sorted array. The algorithm operates by dividing the search interval in half with each step: if the target value is less than the value in the middle of the array, the search continues in the lower half; if the target value is greater, it searches the upper half. This halving of the search space leads to a time complexity of O(log n), which signifies that the time taken to search grows logarithmically as the number of elements increases.

This logarithmic efficiency contrasts with other searching algorithms such as linear search, where each element is checked sequentially until the target is found or the end of the list is reached, leading to a time complexity of O(n). Alternatively, constant time search methods imply that the time taken does not increase with the size of the input, which is not applicable in the context of searching algorithms like binary search that scale with input size. Furthermore, a sequence-based approach does not accurately describe binary search as it specifically requires the data to be sorted before performing the algorithm.