Search an Element in Linked List

Problem Statement:

• Example:

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✅ Solution: Iterative Search

bool searchElement(SinglyLinkedListNode* head, int target) {
    SinglyLinkedListNode* current = head;

    // Traverse the list to look for the target
    while(current != nullptr) {
        if(current->data == target) return true;
        current = current->next;
    }

    return false; // Not found
}

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📝 How It Works

• We initialize a pointer current at the head.
• Traverse the list node by node.
• At each step, check if current->data == target.
• If found, return true.
• If we reach the end without finding it, return false.

This is a basic linear search on a linked list.

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🧩 Key Logic

The main condition checked inside the loop:

if(current->data == target) return true;

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⏱️ Time & Space Complexity

Metric	Value
🕒 Time	O(N), where N is number of nodes
🧠 Space	O(1), no extra space used

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⚠️ Edge Cases

• Empty list → returns false
• First node is the target → returns immediately
• Last node is the target → full traversal needed
• Target not present → returns false

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💡 Other Approaches

Approach	Time	Space	Use When
Iterative ✅	O(N)	O(1)	Preferred for simplicity
Recursive	O(N)	O(N)	Good for practice, but inefficient due to stack

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🔁 Related Problems

• Find the middle node
• Detect cycle in a linked list
• Find N-th node from the end
• Count frequency of a specific value

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