What is the time complexity of deleting the last node in a singly linked list?

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Question: What is the time complexity of deleting the last node in a singly linked list?

Options:

Correct Answer: O(n)

Solution:

To delete the last node in a singly linked list, you must traverse the list to find the second-to-last node, resulting in O(n) time complexity.

What is the time complexity of deleting the last node in a singly linked list?

What is the time complexity of deleting the last node in a singly linked list?

Step 1: Understand that a singly linked list is a series of nodes where each node points to the next one.
Step 2: Identify that to delete the last node, you need to find the node just before it (the second-to-last node).
Step 3: Start at the head (first node) of the list and move through each node until you reach the second-to-last node.
Step 4: Count how many nodes you have as you traverse the list. This will take time proportional to the number of nodes, which is 'n'.
Step 5: Once you reach the second-to-last node, you can change its 'next' pointer to 'null' to remove the last node.
Step 6: Conclude that since you had to look at each node to find the second-to-last one, the time complexity for deleting the last node is O(n).

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