What is the worst-case time complexity of a linear search algorithm?

The worst-case time complexity of a linear search algorithm is O(n) because, in the worst-case scenario, the algorithm examines every element in the list before finding the target value or determining that it is not present.

In a linear search, the algorithm starts at the beginning of the array (or list) and checks each consecutive element until it finds the desired value or reaches the end of the array. If the target value is located at the very end of the list or is not present at all, the algorithm must traverse all n elements, which results in a time complexity proportional to the size of the input, n.

This linear relationship between the number of elements and the time taken to search is what gives linear search its O(n) complexity.