In a stack, what is the time complexity of accessing the top element?

Practice Questions

Q1
In a stack, what is the time complexity of accessing the top element?
  1. O(1)
  2. O(n)
  3. O(log n)
  4. O(n^2)

Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions

In a stack, what is the time complexity of accessing the top element?
  • Step 1: Understand what a stack is. A stack is a data structure that follows the Last In, First Out (LIFO) principle.
  • Step 2: Know that the top element of a stack is the last element that was added.
  • Step 3: Realize that to access the top element, you just need to look at this last added element.
  • Step 4: Understand that this action of looking at the top element does not depend on the number of elements in the stack.
  • Step 5: Conclude that accessing the top element takes the same amount of time, regardless of how many elements are in the stack.
  • Step 6: Therefore, the time complexity for accessing the top element is O(1), which means it is done in constant time.
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