1:

class Solution(object):
    def myPow(self, x, n):
        """
        :type x: float
        :type n: int
        :rtype: float
        """
        if n < 0:
            return 1.0/self.myPow(x, -n)
        elif n==0:
            return 1
        elif n == 1:
            return x
        elif n%2 == 1:
            return self.myPow(x, n//2) * self.myPow(x, n//2) * x
        else:
            return self.myPow(x, n//2) * self.myPow(x, n//2)

2:

class Solution(object):
    def myPow(self, x, n):
        """
        :type x: float
        :type n: int
        :rtype: float
        """
        if n==0:
            return 1
        elif n==1:
            return x
        elif n < 0:
            return 1 / self.myPow(x, -n)
        elif n%2 == 1:
            return x * self.myPow(x, n-1)
        else:
            return self.myPow(x*x, n//2)

I implemented poewr functions in two different ways.

I was expecting the time complexity to be the same, but when trying on leetcode, 1) timed out and failed for some examples, but 2) succeeded.

Is there a reason why that was the case? I thought time complexity would be the same for both.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.