Definition: Time Complexity
The time complexity of an algorithm is the number of atomic operations that the algorithm performs before completion when given an input of length . We say that the algorithm runs in time.
INTUITION
The time complexity is a function which depends on the input’s length. An atomic operation is the most basic operation which the algorithm can perform and is assumed to always take a constant amount of time to run, which is why they serve as the units in which time complexity is measured.