The worst-case cost for Sequential Search (unordered linked list) is N. The code looks something like this:

public void put(Key key, Value val) {

for(Node x = first; x != null; x = x.next)

if(key.equals(x.key) {

x.val = val;

return;

first = new Node(key, val, first) }

If we removed the equals.(), and assumed the new key, value pair to be inserted is always unique, what would be the order of growth for something like the code below?

public void put(Key key, Value value) {

first = new Node(key, val, first);

}

I think it's O(1) but I am not sure. Thoughts? Thank you!