From 0bc805966329c5f605d5c50a216b064d92949336 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: = <=>
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2026 14:12:04 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Fix exponential search for empty collections

---
 searches/exponential_search.py | 2 ++
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)

diff --git a/searches/exponential_search.py b/searches/exponential_search.py
index ed09b14e101c..4e05f4511b9a 100644
--- a/searches/exponential_search.py
+++ b/searches/exponential_search.py
@@ -85,6 +85,8 @@ 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