According to the "Searching, sorting, algorithm analysis" lesson, the worst case for a linear search is when the target is not in the list. Why is this?

Group of answer choices

Because the list is a waste of space if it doesn't contain the item we are looking for.

Because it's a waste of time to look for something that isn't there.

Because we have to check every item in the list, instead of being able to stop sooner when we find the item.

Because then the search returns $-1$ and we have to figure out what to do with that value.