What are the time costs for performing maximum element search operations when using ArrayList, if elements are added infrequently?

Finding the maximum element in an ArrayList requires iterating through all elements, which has a time complexity of O(n), where n is the number of elements in the list.

If elements are added infrequently, it can be assumed that each search for the maximum will traverse the entire list. To optimize, you can store the maximum separately and update it when new elements are added.

Example of finding the maximum in an ArrayList:

ArrayList<Integer> list = new ArrayList<>();
// adding elements
int max = Integer.MIN_VALUE;
for (int num : list) {
    if (num > max) {
        max = num;
    }
}