As the title asks, I wonder if the size() method in the LinkedList class takes amortized O(1) time or O(n) time.
O(1) as you would have found had you looked at the source code...
From LinkedList:
private transient int size = 0;
...
/**
* Returns the number of elements in this list.
*
* @return the number of elements in this list
*/
public int size() {
return size;
}
It's O(1). You can google for the source code and you will come to such:
From http://www.docjar.com/html/api/java/util/LinkedList.java.html
All of the Collection classes I have looked at store a the size as a variable and don't iterate through everything to get it.