O(n)
—Linear Time
FineLook at every element once. Grows evenly with input.
Mental model
Checking every seat in a cinema row to find your friend. 10 seats → up to 10 checks. 100 seats → up to 100 checks. Time grows in a straight line proportional to the data.
Interactive Visualisation
🪑 Checking every seat in a cinema row to find your friend. You start at seat 1, check it, move to seat 2, and so on. If your friend is in seat 8, you do 8 checks. 100 seats → up to 100 checks. Time grows directly with the data.
Looking for: element #1 (hidden at index 0)
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Operations grow 1-to-1 with n
n=55
n=1010
n=2020
n=5050
n=100100
How it scales
n = 10
10 ops
n = 100
100 ops
n = 1,000
1,000 ops
n = 1,000,000
1,000,000 ops