In a linked list, what is the time complexity of inserting an element at the beg
Practice Questions
Q1
In a linked list, what is the time complexity of inserting an element at the beginning?
O(n)
O(log n)
O(1)
O(n log n)
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
In a linked list, what is the time complexity of inserting an element at the beginning?
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 inserting an element at the beginning means adding a new node before the first node of the linked list.
Step 3: Realize that to insert a new node at the beginning, you only need to change a few pointers: the new node points to the current first node, and then the head of the list points to the new node.
Step 4: Since this operation involves a fixed number of steps (changing pointers), it does not depend on the size of the linked list.
Step 5: Therefore, the time it takes to insert at the beginning is constant, which is represented as O(1).
