Assuming a list of elements is sorted in ascending order, we search sequentially from the first element comparing the target to successive elements either until we find the target (succeed) or until the current element is greater than the target or we reach the end of the list (fail).
Is Short Sequential Search ever more efficient than regular sequential search? If so, when?
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Every search algorithm eventually looks at every element in at least one case (otherwise they couldn’t find it if it is the desired value), and all search algorithms differ in the order in which they look at these elements for at least one input (otherwise they’d be effectively identical). So yes, every algorithm is faster than some other algorithm on at least one input.
For instance, a fast sequential search will be faster if the element you wanted to find happens to be at the very beginning, while a binary search will be faster if it is exactly in the middle. For an instance of your exact example, you should explain what precisely you mean by “regular sequential search”.