What is the worst-case time complexity of insertion in a linked list?

Practice Questions

Q1
What is the worst-case time complexity of insertion in a linked list?
  1. O(1)
  2. O(n)
  3. O(log n)
  4. O(n^2)

Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions

What is the worst-case time complexity of insertion in a linked list?
  • Step 1: Understand what a linked list is. A linked list is a data structure where each element (node) points to the next one.
  • Step 2: Know that to insert an element, you need to find the right position in the list.
  • Step 3: If you want to insert at the end of the linked list, you have to start from the beginning and go through each node until you reach the last one.
  • Step 4: This means you may have to look at every node in the list, which takes time proportional to the number of nodes.
  • Step 5: If there are 'n' nodes in the linked list, it can take up to 'n' steps to find the end.
  • Step 6: Therefore, the worst-case time complexity for inserting at the end of a linked list is O(n).
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