What is the time complexity of searching for an element in an unsorted linked li
Practice Questions
Q1
What is the time complexity of searching for an element in an unsorted linked list?
O(1)
O(n)
O(log n)
O(n log n)
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
What is the time complexity of searching for an element in an unsorted linked list?
Step 1: Understand what an unsorted linked list is. It is a collection of nodes where each node contains data and a reference to the next node, and the nodes are not in any particular order.
Step 2: To search for an element, you need to start from the head (the first node) of the linked list.
Step 3: Check the data in the current node to see if it matches the element you are looking for.
Step 4: If it does not match, move to the next node and repeat Step 3.
Step 5: Continue this process until you either find the element or reach the end of the list.
Step 6: If the list has 'n' nodes, in the worst case, you may have to check all 'n' nodes to find the element or determine it is not present.
Step 7: Therefore, the time complexity for searching in an unsorted linked list is O(n).
