ALGORITHMS FOR WORKING WITH LINKED LISTS: IMPLEMENTATION, ANALYSIS AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Linked lists are one of the most fundamental and versatile dynamic data structures in computer science, forming the backbone of many complex algorithms and system-level implementations. This article provides a rigorous examination of singly linked lists, doubly linked lists, and circular linked lists, detailing their structural properties, algorithmic operations, time and space complexity analyses, and practical applications. The core operations — insertion, deletion, traversal, and searching — are analyzed both theoretically and through algorithmic pseudocode. The article demonstrates how linked lists serve as the underlying structure for stacks, queues, graphs, and hash tables, and examines their critical role in memory allocators, operating system kernel structures, and compiler symbol tables. A detailed comparative analysis between arrays and linked lists clarifies when each structure is optimal. Advanced topics including Floyd's cycle detection, list reversal, merging sorted lists, and the two-pointer technique are presented with full solutions to illustrate the practical depth of linked list mastery.