10/11/15

Big-O Algorithm Complexity Cheat Sheet

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KnowThyComplexities!
Hithere!ThiswebpagecoversthespaceandtimeBigOcomplexitiesofcommonalgorithmsusedinComputerScience.
Whenpreparingfortechnicalinterviewsinthepast,Ifoundmyselfspendinghourscrawlingtheinternetputtingtogether
thebest,average,andworstcasecomplexitiesforsearchandsortingalgorithmssothatIwouldn'tbestumpedwhenasked
aboutthem.Overthelastfewyears,I'veinterviewedatseveralSiliconValleystartups,andalsosomebiggercompanies,
likeYahoo,eBay,LinkedIn,andGoogle,andeachtimethatIpreparedforaninterview,Ithoughttomyself"Whyhasn't
someonecreatedaniceBigOcheatsheet?".So,tosaveallofyoufinefolksatonoftime,Iwentaheadandcreatedone.
Enjoy!Eric

Legend
ExcellentGoodFairBadHorrible

DataStructureOperations
Data
Structure
Access
Array
Stack
Singly
Linked
List
Doubly
Linked
List

Space
Complexity
Worst

TimeComplexity
Average
Search
Insertion

Deletion

Access

Worst
Search
Insertion

Deletion

O(1)

O(n)

O(n)

O(n)

O(1)

O(n)

O(n)

O(n)

O(n)

O(n)

O(n)

O(1)

O(1)

O(n)

O(n)

O(1)

O(1)

O(n)

O(n)

O(n)

O(1)

O(1)

O(n)

O(n)

O(1)

O(1)

O(n)

O(n)

O(n)

O(1)

O(1)

O(n)

O(n)

O(1)

O(1)

O(n)

SkipList O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(n)

O(n)

O(n)

O(n)

O(n)

O(n)

O(n)

Hash
Table
Binary

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O(1)

O(1)

O(1)

O(n
log(n))
O(n)

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Big-O Algorithm Complexity Cheat Sheet

Binary
Search
Tree

O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(n)

Cartesian
Tree

O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))-

O(n)

O(n)

O(n)

O(n)

O(n)

O(n)

O(n)

O(n)

BTree

O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(n)

Red
Black
Tree

O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(n)

Splay
Tree
AVL
Tree

O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))-

O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(n)

O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(log(n))O(n)

ArraySortingAlgorithms
Algorithm

TimeComplexity
Best

Average

SpaceComplexity
Worst

Worst

Quicksort

O(n log(n))O(n log(n))

O(n^2)

O(log(n))

Mergesort
Timsort

O(n log(n))O(n log(n))

O(n log(n))

O(n)

O(n)

O(n log(n))

O(n log(n))

O(n)

Heapsort
O(n log(n))O(n log(n))
BubbleSort O(n)
O(n^2)
InsertionSort O(n)
O(n^2)

O(n log(n))

O(1)

O(n^2)

O(1)

O(n^2)

O(1)

SelectionSort O(n^2)
ShellSort
O(n)

O(n^2)

O(n^2)

O(1)

BucketSort
RadixSort

O(n+k)

O(n+k)

O(n^2)

O(n)

O(nk)

O(nk)

O(nk)

O(n+k)

O((nlog(n))^2)O((nlog(n))^2)O(1)

GraphOperations
Node/EdgeManagement
Storage
Adjacencylist
O(|V|+|E|)
Incidencelist
Adjacencymatrix
Incidencematrix

AddVertex

AddEdge

RemoveVertex RemoveEdge Query

O(1)

O(1)

O(|V| + |E|) O(|E|)

O(|V|)

O(|V|+|E|)

O(1)

O(1)

O(|E|)

O(|E|)

O(|E|)

O(|V|^2)

O(|V|^2)

O(1)

O(|V|^2)

O(1)

O(1)

O(|V| |E|)O(|V| |E|)O(|V| |E|)O(|V| |E|) O(|V| |E|)O(|E|)

HeapOperations
Type

TimeComplexity
Heapify FindMax ExtractMax IncreaseKey Insert

Delete

Merge

LinkedList(sorted) LinkedList(unsorted) -

O(1)

O(1)

O(n)

O(n)

O(1)

O(m+n)

O(n)

O(n)

O(1)

O(1)

O(1)

O(1)

BinaryHeap
BinomialHeap

O(n)

O(1)

O(log(n)) O(log(n))

O(log(n))O(log(n))O(m+n)

O(1)

O(log(n)) O(log(n))

O(1)

O(log(n))O(log(n))

FibonacciHeap

O(1)

O(log(n)) O(1)

O(1)

O(log(n))O(1)

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Big-O Algorithm Complexity Cheat Sheet

BigOComplexityChart

RecommendedReading
CrackingtheCodingInterview:150ProgrammingQuestionsandSolutions
IntroductiontoAlgorithms,3rdEdition
DataStructuresandAlgorithmsinJava(2ndEdition)
HighPerformanceJavaScript(BuildFasterWebApplicationInterfaces)

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Big-O Algorithm Complexity Cheat Sheet

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Big-O Algorithm Complexity Cheat Sheet

292Comments
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Jointhediscussion
MichaelMitchell 2yearsago

Thisisgreat.Maybeyoucouldincludesomeresources(linkstokhanacademy,moocetc)thatwouldexplain
eachoftheseconceptsforpeopletryingtolearnthem.
249

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AmandaHarlin>MichaelMitchell 2yearsago

Yes!Please&thankyou
58

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CamCecil>MichaelMitchell 2yearsago

Thisexplanationin'plainEnglish'helps:http://stackoverflow.com/quest...
23

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ArjanNieuwenhuizen>MichaelMitchell 2yearsago

HerearethelinksthatIknowof.
#1)http://aduni.org/courses/algor...
#2)http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/ele...
#3)https://www.udacity.com/course...
probablyasgoodormaybebetter#2,butIhavenothadachancetolookatit.
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/ele...
Sincerely,
Arjan
p.s.
https://www.coursera.org/cours...
Thiscoursehasjustbegunoncoursera(dated1July2013),andlooksverygood.
11

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fireheron>ArjanNieuwenhuizen 2yearsago

ThankyouArjan.Espaeciallythecoursera.orgone)
3

Reply Share

michaelfloering>fireheron 7monthsago

alsothis!http://opendatastructures.org
4

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yth>michaelfloering 7monthsago

thankyouforsharingthis.
1

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Big-O Algorithm Complexity Cheat Sheet

Reply Share

BlakeJennings 2yearsago

i'mliterallycrying
77

Reply Share

JonRenner 2yearsago

Thisisgod'swork.
100

Reply Share

AdamHeinermann 2yearsago

Isthereaprinterfriendlyversion?
51

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ThomasFeichtinger>AdamHeinermann ayearago

Actuallycopyingthecontentstoagoogledocworkedprettywell!
Ihavemadeitpublic,havealook:
https://docs.google.com/spread...
24

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NumusSoftware>ThomasFeichtinger 14daysago

Youhavetolovealgorithms!!!

ericdrowell

Reply Share

Mod >AdamHeinermann

2yearsago

notyet,butthat'sagreatidea!
8

Reply Share

MattLabrum>AdamHeinermann 8monthsago

I,too,wantedaprinterfriendlyversionforstudyingbeforeaninterview,andIwasn'tsatisfiedwiththe
solutionsIfoundprovidedinthevariouscommentshere.So,IwentaheadandLaTeX'edthispageto
getanicePDF.
IhaveuploadedthePDFsIcreatedtomyGoogleDriveandmadethempublic:
https://drive.google.com/folde....InthatfolderaretwoPDFSoneisforlettersizedpaperandthe
otherisforA4sizedpaper.AssumingIdidn'tintroduceanytypos,thecontentofthosePDFsshould
matchthecontentofthispage(asitappearsatthismoment17February2015),withtheonly
noteworthydifferencebeingthatImovedtheGraphssectiontobeaftertheSortingsectiontohelp
eliminatesomeextrawhitespace.
2

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YuvaraajSreenivasen>MattLabrum 4monthsago

GreatthanksMatt!!

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JoeGibson>MattLabrum 8monthsago

Matt,
GreatjobontheLaTeXdocument.I'mpreparingforaGoogleinterviewandthiswillbealotof
help!
Anychanceyoucanputthe.texfileonyourdriveaswellinthesamefolder?

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Big-O Algorithm Complexity Cheat Sheet

MattLabrum>JoeGibson 8monthsago

Donethetwo.texfilesandthe.epsofthegrapharenowinthatfolder.
Edit
I'vealsoputtheRscriptandtmp.texfileIusedtocreatethegraphinthatfolder.After
creatingthe.epsfilewithR,IdidsomeprocessingonittogetthefinalBigO.epsfileI
includeinthe.texfiles.
Forcompleteness,togetfromtheRgeneratedBigO.epsfiletothefinalBigO.epsfile,I
didthefollowing:
1.OpenBigO.epswithatexteditortoensurethetextannotationshavenotbeen
brokenapart.Ipersonallyhadtoput"Operations"and"BigOComplexity"(yaxislabel
andgraphtitle)backtogether.
2.Processtmp.textogeta.dvifilethatcontainsaPSFrag'edversionofthegraph.
3.dvipsjEtmp.dvioBigO.tmp.eps
4.epstoolcopybboxBigO.tmp.epsBigO.eps
5.rmBigO.tmp.eps

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JoeGibson>MattLabrum 8monthsago

Thanks,yourock.

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GokceToykuyu 3yearsago

Couldweaddsometreealgorithmsandcomplexities?Thanks.IreallyliketheRedBlacktrees)
34

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ericdrowell

Mod >GokceToykuyu

3yearsago

Excellentidea.I'lladdasectionthatcomparesinsertion,deletion,andsearchcomplexitiesforspecific
datastructures
30

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DarrenLeRedgatr 2yearsago

Icameherefromanidletwitterclick.Ihavenoideawhatit'stalkingaboutoranyofthecomments.ButIlove
thefacttherearepeopleouttherethisclever.Makesmethinkthatonedayhumanitywillcomegood.Cheers.
55

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ValentinStanciu 2yearsago

1.Deletion/insertioninasinglelinkedlistisimplementationdependent.Forthequestionof"Here'sapointerto
anelement,howmuchdoesittaketodeleteit?",singlelinkedliststakeO(N)sinceyouhavetosearchforthe
elementthatpointstotheelementbeingdeleted.Doublelinkedlistssolvethisproblem.
2.Hashescomeinamillionvarieties.HoweverwithagooddistributionfunctiontheyareO(logN)worstcase.
Usingadoublehashingalgorithm,youendupwithaworstcaseofO(loglogN).
3.Fortrees,thetableshouldprobablyalsocontainheapsandthecomplexitiesfortheoperation"Get
Minimum".
25

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AlexisMas>ValentinStanciu ayearago

Ifyoualist:ABCD,WhenyouwanttodeleteB,youcandeleteanodewithoutiteratingoverthelist.
1.B.data=C.data
2.B.next=C.next
3.deleteC

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Big-O Algorithm Complexity Cheat Sheet

Ifyoucan'tcopydatabetweennodesbecauseitstooexpensivethenyes,it'sO(N)
5

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Miguel>AlexisMas 10monthsago

Youstillhavetofindthepositioninthelist,whichcanonlybedonelinearly.
5

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Guest>Miguel 8monthsago

Youstillhavetofindthepositioninthelist,whichcanonlybedonelinearly.
3

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AlexisMas>Miguel 8monthsago

Yesofcourse,Ifyouneedtosearchthenodeit'sO(n),otherwiseyoucandeleteitasI
statedbefore.
1

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Guest>AlexisMas 8monthsago

NoneedtofindthepositionifyoucandeleteitasAlexismentioned
2

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OmegaNemesis28>AlexisMas 8monthsago

TogettoByouHAVEtoiterateoverthelistthough.Youcan'tjustmanipulateBwithouta
pointer.Sounlessyoudobookkeepingandhavepointerstospecificnodesyouintendto
delete/manipulate,LinkListsareO(n)insertanddelete.
2

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AlexisMas>OmegaNemesis28 8monthsago

Strictlyspeakingno,youdon't.let'ssayyouhavethisfunction.
publicvoiddelete(Nodenode)
Thatfunctiondoesn'tcarehowdidyougotthatnode.
Didyougotmypoint?
Whenyouhaveapointertoanode,andthatnodeneedstobedeletedyoudon'tneedto
iteraveoverthelist.
1

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OmegaNemesis28>AlexisMas 8monthsago

ButthatisMYpoint:p
YouhavetohavethenodeFIRST.Youhavetoiteratethroughthelistbeforeyoucando
that,unlessyoudobookkeepingandhappentohavesaidnode.RereadwhatIsaid.
"havepointerstospecificnodes"Mostofthetime,youdonotwithLinkedLists.Ifyou
haveaLinkedListandwanttodeleteindex5,youhavetoiterateto5andsuch.Your
examplewasABCD,ourpointsarethatyoutypicallydon'thavethepointertoBjust
offhand.YouhavetoobtainitfirstwhichwillbeO(n)
2

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ChrisB>OmegaNemesis28 3daysago

Searchandinsert/deletearedifferentoperations.Insert/deleteonanunsortedlinkedlist
isO(1).Thefactthatyoumighthavetofirstsearchfortheelementthatyouwantto
deleteisnotconsideredrelevant,asthatfunctionalityiscoveredbytheO(n)search

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Big-O Algorithm Complexity Cheat Sheet

deleteisnotconsideredrelevant,asthatfunctionalityiscoveredbytheO(n)search
operation,nottheO(1)insert/deleteoperations.Arealworldexampleoflinkedlist
insert/deletecanbefoundinlist_delandlist_addoftheLinuxkernelsource,those
functionsareonly2and4linesofcode,soshouldbeeasytounderstand:http://lxr.free
electrons.com/...

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SamLehman617>AlexisMas 7monthsago

Butinordertogettothatpointer,youprobablyneedtoiteratethroughthelist
1

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PinguApp>AlexisMas 8monthsago

WhatifBisthelastelementinthelist?
HowwouldB'spredecesorknowthatitsnextfieldshouldpointtoNULLandnottoafuturely
invalidmemoryaddress?
1

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AlexisMas>PinguApp 8monthsago

Inthatcaseyoucan'tdeletedthatway,you'reforcedtohaveapointertotheprevious
item.
1

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qwertykeyboard 2yearsago

ItwouldbeveryhelpfultohaveexporttoPDF.Thx
17

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Gene>qwertykeyboard 2yearsago

YoucouldconvertthedocumentyourselfusingPandoc:http://johnmacfarlane.net/pand...
Itmighttakeyoualongtimetogetitworking,butPandocisanamazingonestopshopforfile
conversion,andcrossplatformcompatible.
IfIunderstandbigohnotationcorrectlyImightsay"IestimateyourlearningrateforlearningPandoc
willbeO(1).".
2

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Ashutosh>Gene 2yearsago

provedO(n),n=numberofformatconversionstolearn:)
4

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JuanCarlosAlvarez>Gene 2yearsago

bigoh.hahafunny.
1

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Guest 2yearsago

Finalsarealreadyover...Thisshouldhavebeensharedaweekago!Wouldhavesavedmelike45minutesof
usingWikipedia.
11

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sigmaalgebra 2yearsago

Youomittedaninplace,guaranteedO(nlog(n))arraysort,
e.g.,heapsort.Youomittedradixsortthatcanbefaster
thananyofthealgorithmsyoumentioned.
MightmentionSATandrelatedproblemsinNPcomplete

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wherethebestknownalgorithmfor
aproblemofsizenhasO(2^n).
Mightincludeanactual,precisedefinitionofO().
9

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JonRenner 2yearsago

AnywayIcangetaPDFversionwithouttakingscreenshotsmyself?
8

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AttilaOlh>JonRenner 9monthsago

PrintDestination:ChangeSelect"SaveasPDF"(inChrome).
2

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AntoineGrondin 2yearsago

IthinkDFSandBFS,underSearch,wouldbemoreappropriatelistedasGraphinsteadofTree.
8

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ericdrowell

Mod >AntoineGrondin

2yearsago

Fixed!Thanks
4

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QuentinPlepl>AntoineGrondin 2yearsago

Agreed
1

Reply Share

AnkushGupta 2yearsago

Awesomeresource!YoushouldaddDijkstrausingaFibonacciHeap!
7

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tempire 2yearsago

Thischartseemsmisleading.BigOisworstcase,notaveragecase~isaveragecase.O(...)shouldn'tbe
usedintheaveragecasecolumns.
16

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guest>tempire 2yearsago

IthinkbigOisjustanupperbound.Itcouldbeusedforall(best,worstandaverage)cases.AmI
wrong?

PagestylingviaBootstrap
CommentsviaDisqus
AlgorithmdetailviaWikipedia
TablesourcehostedonGithub
Mashupvia@ericdrowell

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