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tail recursion
Learn tail recursion in Scheme with a construct-specific explanation, unique example, engineering boundary, and mastery check.
tail recursion is a focused Scheme topic inside Control Flow. This lesson explains the construct itself, the state or value it operates on, and the observable result it produces.
Read the example as a small executable experiment. Identify the exact syntax that belongs to tail recursion, then change one input and predict the result before running it.
Topic-specific example
(define (sum n acc) (if (zero? n) acc (sum (- n 1) (+ acc n))))
(sum 5 0)
tail recursion has rules that are easy to miss when the example is copied mechanically. Check the feature-specific boundary shown by this construct: scope, mutability, evaluation order, type constraints, lifetime, error behavior, compile-time restrictions, or resource cleanup where applicable.