How is the speed of obtaining an element by index in a LinkedList determined?

In a linked list, LinkedList, retrieving an element by index is done by sequentially traversing nodes from the beginning (or the end if the index is closer to the end) of the list to the desired position. This means that the access time to an element by index is linear, i.e., O(n), where n is the index of the element.

Unlike arrays, where index access is constant time (O(1)), LinkedList does not store elements in contiguous memory, so there is no direct index access.

Example in Java:

LinkedList<String> list = new LinkedList<>();
list.add("a");
list.add("b");
list.add("c");

// To get the element at index 2, traversal of the first two elements occurs
String element = list.get(2); // "c"

The get() method will traverse the elements sequentially until the desired index.