There are different measurements of the speed of any given algorithm. Given an input size of
N, they can be described as follows:
| Name |
Speed |
Description |
|
|
| exponential time |
slow |
takes an amount of time proportional to a constant raised to the Nth power
(K^N) |
|
|
| polynomial time |
fast |
takes an amount of time proportional to N raised to some constant power
(N^K) |
|
|
| linear time |
faster |
takes an amount of time directly proportional to N (K * N) |
|
|
| logarithmic time |
much faster |
takes an amount of time proportional to the logarithm of N
(log(N)) |
|
|
| constant time |
fastest |
takes a fixed amount of time, no matter how large the input is (K) |