What is the time complexity of inserting an element at the beginning of an array using shifting?

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What is the time complexity of inserting an element at the beginning of an array using shifting?

The time complexity of inserting an element at the beginning of an array using shifting is O(n), where n is the number of elements in the array.

When inserting an element at the beginning of an array using shifting, we need to shift all the existing elements to the right by one position to make space for the new element. This shifting operation requires iterating through each element of the array and moving it to the next position. As a result, the time taken to insert an element at the beginning of the array increases linearly with the number of elements in the array.

In the worst-case scenario, where the array is already full and we need to shift all the elements, the time complexity becomes O(n). However, in the best-case scenario, where the array is empty, the time complexity would be O(1) as there is no need to shift any elements.

It is important to note that if we are using a dynamic array or an ArrayList, inserting an element at the beginning can be done in O(1) time complexity by resizing the array and shifting the elements only when necessary. However, if we are dealing with a fixed-size array, the shifting operation is unavoidable, resulting in a time complexity of O(n).