refactor: remove duplicate factorial implementations and add improved iterative factorial with full test suite

Author: trishajp38-source

src/main/java/com/thealgorithms/divideandconquer/Factorial.java

@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+package com.thealgorithms.divideandconquer;
+/**
+ * Computes the factorial of a non-negative integer using an iterative
+ * approach to avoid recursion overhead and stack overflow risks.
+ *
+ * <p>This implementation improves upon the original recursive version by
+ * eliminating deep recursion, reducing space complexity from O(n) to O(1),
+ * and improving runtime efficiency on the JVM.
+ *
+ * <p>Time Complexity: O(n)
+ * <br>Space Complexity: O(1)
+ */
+public class Factorial {
+    /**
+     * Returns the factorial of the given non-negative number.
+     *
+     * @param n the number to compute factorial for
+     * @return factorial of n (n!)
+     * @throws IllegalArgumentException if n is negative
+     */
+    public static long factorial(long n) {
+        if (n < 0) {
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Negative input not allowed");
+        }
+
+        long result = 1;
+        for (long i = 2; i <= n; i++) {
+            result *= i;
+        }
+
+        return result;
+    }
+}

src/main/java/com/thealgorithms/maths/Factorial.java

@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+package com.thealgorithms.divideandconquer;
+
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.*;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+
+
+public class FactorialTest {
+     // --------------------------------------------------------
+    // SECTION 1: Basic Correctness Tests
+    // --------------------------------------------------------
+
+    @Test
+    void testFactorialOfFive() {
+        assertEquals(120, Factorial.factorial(5));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void testFactorialOfZero() {
+        assertEquals(1, Factorial.factorial(0));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void testNegativeInputThrowsException() {
+        assertThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class, () -> {
+            Factorial.factorial(-5);
+        });
+    }
+
+    // --------------------------------------------------------
+    // SECTION 2: Analysis-Oriented Test (Performance Awareness)
+    // --------------------------------------------------------
+
+    @Test
+    void testLargeInputPerformance() {
+        long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
+        long result = Factorial.factorial(15);
+        long end = System.currentTimeMillis();
+
+        assertEquals(1307674368000L, result);
+        assertTrue((end - start) < 50, "Factorial(15) took too long to compute");
+    }
+
+    // --------------------------------------------------------
+    // SECTION 3: Algorithmic Improvement Demonstration
+    // --------------------------------------------------------
+
+    /**
+     * Local copy of the original recursive implementation
+     * used only for comparing performance inside the test.
+     */
+    private long recursiveFactorial(long n) {
+        if (n < 0) throw new IllegalArgumentException("Negative input not allowed");
+        if (n == 0 || n == 1) return 1;
+        return n * recursiveFactorial(n - 1);
+    }
+
+     @Test
+    void testIterativeFasterThanRecursive() {
+        long n = 18;
+
+        long startRec = System.nanoTime();
+        long recResult = recursiveFactorial(n);
+        long endRec = System.nanoTime();
+
+        long startIter = System.nanoTime();
+        long iterResult = Factorial.factorial(n);
+        long endIter = System.nanoTime();
+
+        assertEquals(recResult, iterResult);
+        assertTrue(endIter - startIter < endRec - startRec,
+                "Iterative version should outperform recursive version");
+    }
+
+      @Test
+    void testIterativeHandlesLargerInputsSafely() {
+        assertDoesNotThrow(() -> Factorial.factorial(20));
+    }
+}