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TL;DR

Expected Height of a Skip List: A canonical quantitative trading interview question at olympiad difficulty. Commonly asked at Jane Street, HRT, Jump Trading.

By Valenke Exam Prep Team·Last updated 2026-06-01
olympiadRandomized Data Structures

Expected Height of a Skip List

Asked at: Jane Street, HRT, Jump Trading

Problem
In a skip list with nn elements, each element is promoted to the next level independently with probability p=1/2p = 12\frac{1}{2}. What is the expected height (maximum level) of the skip list? Prove that the expected search time is O(log⁡n)O(\log n).

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