What does a linear search do?

• A. It sorts the array before searching
• B. It scans each element until the target is found
• C. It uses binary search to split the search space
• D. It builds a lookup table for fast access

Answer: (B)

A linear search checks each element in turn until it finds the target. It doesn’t require the data to be sorted, and it’s simple to implement: start at the first item, compare it with the target, and move to the next until a match is found or you reach the end. Because you might have to look at every item, the time it takes grows linearly with the number of elements. This differs from sorting the data first and then searching, which isn’t what the linear search does. It’s also different from binary search, which repeatedly splits the search space and needs the data to be sorted. And it isn’t about building a lookup table, which is a preprocessing step for fast access rather than scanning for a single value.