What is the time complexity of accessing the i-th element in a singly linked list?

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Multiple Choice

What is the time complexity of accessing the i-th element in a singly linked list?

Explanation:
In a singly linked list there’s no direct way to jump to the i-th element—you must start at the head and follow next pointers i times to reach that position. Each step is constant-time, so the total work grows linearly with i. That makes the time complexity O(i). If i happens to be near the end of the list, this is O(n) in the worst case, but the precise bound with respect to the requested position is linear in i, which is why O(i) is the best description.

In a singly linked list there’s no direct way to jump to the i-th element—you must start at the head and follow next pointers i times to reach that position. Each step is constant-time, so the total work grows linearly with i. That makes the time complexity O(i). If i happens to be near the end of the list, this is O(n) in the worst case, but the precise bound with respect to the requested position is linear in i, which is why O(i) is the best description.

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