Big O Notation Cheatsheet

So this is something I always tend to forget as I grow more grey hair, but a good source reference for Big O Notation as a cheatsheet, can be found at http://bigocheatsheet.com  which I have included below. Of course this would be invaluable in job interviews, so read up and prep up beforehand and you should be fine:

Searching

Algorithm Data Structure Time Complexity Space Complexity
Average Worst Worst
Depth First Search (DFS) Graph of |V| vertices and |E| edges - O(|E| + |V|) O(|V|)
Breadth First Search (BFS) Graph of |V| vertices and |E| edges - O(|E| + |V|) O(|V|)
Binary search Sorted array of n elements O(log(n)) O(log(n)) O(1)
Linear (Brute Force) Array O(n) O(n) O(1)
Shortest path by Dijkstra,
using a Min-heap as priority queue
Graph with |V| vertices and |E| edges O((|V| + |E|) log |V|) O((|V| + |E|) log |V|) O(|V|)
Shortest path by Dijkstra,
using an unsorted array as priority queue
Graph with |V| vertices and |E| edges O(|V|^2) O(|V|^2) O(|V|)
Shortest path by Bellman-Ford Graph with |V| vertices and |E| edges O(|V||E|) O(|V||E|) O(|V|)

Sorting

Algorithm Data Structure Time Complexity Worst Case Auxiliary Space Complexity
Best Average Worst Worst
Quicksort Array O(n log(n)) O(n log(n)) O(n^2) O(n)
Mergesort Array O(n log(n)) O(n log(n)) O(n log(n)) O(n)
Heapsort Array O(n log(n)) O(n log(n)) O(n log(n)) O(1)
Bubble Sort Array O(n) O(n^2) O(n^2) O(1)
Insertion Sort Array O(n) O(n^2) O(n^2) O(1)
Select Sort Array O(n^2) O(n^2) O(n^2) O(1)
Bucket Sort Array O(n+k) O(n+k) O(n^2) O(nk)
Radix Sort Array O(nk) O(nk) O(nk) O(n+k)

Data Structures

Data Structure Time Complexity Space Complexity
Average Worst Worst
Indexing Search Insertion Deletion Indexing Search Insertion Deletion
Basic Array O(1) O(n) - - O(1) O(n) - - O(n)
Dynamic Array O(1) O(n) O(n) O(n) O(1) O(n) O(n) O(n) O(n)
Singly-Linked List O(n) O(n) O(1) O(1) O(n) O(n) O(1) O(1) O(n)
Doubly-Linked List O(n) O(n) O(1) O(1) O(n) O(n) O(1) O(1) O(n)
Skip List O(log(n)) O(log(n)) O(log(n)) O(log(n)) O(n) O(n) O(n) O(n) O(n log(n))
Hash Table - O(1) O(1) O(1) - O(n) O(n) O(n) O(n)
Binary Search Tree O(log(n)) O(log(n)) O(log(n)) O(log(n)) O(n) O(n) O(n) O(n) O(n)
Cartresian Tree - O(log(n)) O(log(n)) O(log(n)) - O(n) O(n) O(n) O(n)
B-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)
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 - O(log(n)) O(log(n)) O(log(n)) - O(log(n)) O(log(n)) O(log(n)) O(n)
AVL 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)

Heaps

Heaps Time Complexity
Heapify Find Max Extract Max Increase Key Insert Delete Merge
Linked List (sorted) - O(1) O(1) O(n) O(n) O(1) O(m+n)
Linked List (unsorted) - O(n) O(n) O(1) O(1) O(1) O(1)
Binary Heap O(n) O(1) O(log(n)) O(log(n)) O(log(n)) O(log(n)) O(m+n)
Binomial Heap - O(log(n)) O(log(n)) O(log(n)) O(log(n)) O(log(n)) O(log(n))
Fibonacci Heap - O(1) O(log(n))* O(1)* O(1) O(log(n))* O(1)

Graphs

Node / Edge Management Storage Add Vertex Add Edge Remove Vertex Remove Edge Query
Adjacency list O(|V|+|E|) O(1) O(1) O(|V| + |E|) O(|E|) O(|V|)
Incidence list O(|V|+|E|) O(1) O(1) O(|E|) O(|E|) O(|E|)
Adjacency matrix O(|V|^2) O(|V|^2) O(1) O(|V|^2) O(1) O(1)
Incidence matrix O(|V| ⋅ |E|) O(|V| ⋅ |E|) O(|V| ⋅ |E|) O(|V| ⋅ |E|) O(|V| ⋅ |E|) O(|E|)

Notation for asymptotic growth

letter bound growth
(theta) Θ upper and lower, tight[1] equal[2]
(big-oh) O upper, tightness unknown less than or equal[3]
(small-oh) o upper, not tight less than
(big omega) Ω lower, tightness unknown greater than or equal
(small omega) ω lower, not tight greater than

[1] Big O is the upper bound, while Omega is the lower bound. Theta requires both Big O and Omega, so that’s why it’s referred to as a tight bound (it must be both the upper and lower bound). For example, an algorithm taking Omega(n log n) takes at least n log n time but has no upper limit. An algorithm taking Theta(n log n) is far preferential since it takes AT LEAST n log n (Omega n log n) and NO MORE THAN n log n (Big O n log n).SO

[2] f(x)=Θ(g(n)) means f (the running time of the algorithm) grows exactly like g when n (input size) gets larger. In other words, the growth rate of f(x) is asymptotically proportional to g(n).

[3] Same thing. Here the growth rate is no faster than g(n). big-oh is the most useful because represents the worst-case behavior.

In short, if algorithm is __ then its performance is __

algorithm performance
o(n) < n
O(n) ≤ n
Θ(n) = n
Ω(n) ≥ n
ω(n) > n

Big-O Complexity Chart

Big O Complexity Graph

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