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) |