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Traversal in a Singly Linked List

Explore how to traverse a singly linked list by accessing each node sequentially from head to end. Understand the process in JavaScript, review time and space complexity, and learn to avoid common errors such as modifying the head or causing infinite loops. This lesson helps you implement traversal methods to print, search, count nodes, and gather node values effectively.

By now, you understand how a linked list is organized in memory and how the head pointer gives access to the first node. Now, let’s learn how traversal works in a singly linked list. The focus will be on how the next references are followed from node to node and why this leads to linear time complexity.

Linked list traversal

Traversal means visiting each node in the linked list one by one. The process starts from the head and repeatedly follows the next reference until reaching NULL.

As linked lists do not support direct indexing, traversal is required to:

  • Print all elements in the list.

  • Search for a specific value.

  • Count the number of nodes.

  • Reach a specific node or position in the list. ...

How traversal works