FAQ: Linear Search: Conceptual - Best Case Performance

This community-built FAQ covers the “Best Case Performance” exercise from the lesson “Linear Search: Conceptual”.

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This exercise can be found in the following Codecademy content:

Search Algorithms

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“The time complexity for linear search in its best case is O(1).”
Does it really means something ? I don’t understand. Why many website use the big O notation even to talk about the best case?
The time complexity for linear search in its best case is Ω(1). Am I wrong?

2 Likes

You re right since O(1) means you reached the target at the first iteration.

So Linear search algorithm should be use when the target value is located at the beginning of the list, ok make sense, but since we are looking for this target and don’t know where it is, how do you know when using linear algorithm is efficient? is it a “try and error” method?