I have problem to understand the following question , help me to sort it out ?

Question

A hash table with ten buckets with one slot per bucket is shown in the following figure. The symbols S1 to S7 initially entered using a hashing function with linear probing.The maximum number of comparisons needed in searching an item that is not present is

Difficulty to understand this line : The maximum number of comparisons needed in searching an item that is not present is ?What does it means respect to this diagram ?

Comments

yes @anu, i was thinking the same, keys are deleted from the table. but this is also a possibility what shubhanshu said because we don't know the hash function.

both the cases are possible.

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@Anu007 we can't say randomly.

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when they are not given thier formula for hash table use assume it as universal one i.e. key mod n = slot.
since here it is not needed so we can assume anything