How does a computer find one word among millions without checking them all? With a hash table: the word itself is turned into a number that says which bucket to look in, so only the few words in that one bucket need checking. Insert your own words, watch two words land in the same bucket, and see what happens to the speed when the table fills up, and how a bigger table fixes it.
This article and its interactive demo were created with the help of generative AI and editorially reviewed.