The Big O Notation

  What is the Big O notation is and should why web developers should know about it? The big O notation also known as Landau’s symbol discovered by a German number theoretician Edmund Landau. It is used to determine the asymptotic nature of functions and to measure their rate of growth– this rate of growth of a function is also referred to a functions Order where the letter O is derived from. Below are the three common types of algorithms used to describe a functions asymptotic behavior (HyperionDev, 2021) : The Constant Function O(1) – describes a function whose complexity rate remains constant regardless of the input size. The Linear Function O(n) – describes a function whose complexity is directly proportionate to the growth in size of the input. The Exponential Function O(2 n ) – describes a function whose complexity grows exponentially as the size of the input set grows. The big O notation is relevant in web development as it is used for analysing algorithms which...