How is the size of a hash table determined?

The size of a hash table (its capacity) is usually determined when creating an instance of the class. This is often done by specifying an initial capacity in the constructor.

If the initial capacity is not specified, a default value is used (for example, 16 for HashMap in Java).

When adding elements, if the number of elements exceeds the product of the current capacity and the load factor (default 0.75), the hash table automatically increases its size (usually doubles it) and recalculates hashes for all elements (rehashing).

Example of a constructor with an initial capacity:

// Creating a HashMap with an initial capacity of 32
Map<String, Integer> map = new HashMap<>(32);

Thus, the size is dynamically adjusted based on the initial configuration and current load.