Linked List Applications Quiz

A linked list is a linear data structure where the elements are not stored at contiguous memory locations. The elements in a linked list are linked using pointers.

A node in a linked list typically consists of two components: Data, which holds the actual value associated with the node, and a Next Pointer, which stores the memory address of the next node in the sequence.

In scenarios where the inserted item is always greatest and frequent insertions and deletions need to be performed, a doubly linked list with head and tail pointers is advantageous. Inserting at the tail and deleting from the head or tail can be done in O(1) time.

The linked list is accessed through the head node, which points to the first node in the list. The last node points to NULL or nullptr, indicating the end of the list, and is known as the tail node.

The linked list data structure is commonly used in applications such as representing polynomials, representing sparse matrices, implementing memory allocators, and managing dynamic memory allocation.