Abstract
Skip lists are sorted linked lists enhanced with shortcuts and are an alternative to binary search trees. A skip lists consists of multiple levels of sorted linked lists where a list on level n is a subsequence of the list on level n − 1. In the ideal case, elements are skipped in such a way that a lookup in a skip lists takes O(log n) time. In a randomised skip list the skipped elements are choosen randomly.
This entry contains formalized proofs of the textbook results about the expected height and the expected length of a search path in a randomised skip list.