Which of the following symbol table implementation is best suited if access…

Answer: Hash Table

Why: Hash tables provide average-case constant time (O(1)) for search, insertion, and deletion when a good hash function is used and the load factor is kept low, making them the best choice for minimal access time.

• Linear list — requires scanning elements; lookup time is O(n).

• Search tree — balanced trees offer O(log n) lookups (better than linear), but unbalanced trees can degrade to O(n); trees are useful when ordered operations are needed.

• Hash Table — average-case O(1) lookup/insertion/deletion; collisions are handled with chaining or open addressing. Worst-case can be O(n) but is rare with good hashing and load management.

• Self organisation list — heuristics like move-to-front help for skewed access patterns, but lookups still require scanning and are O(n) in the worst case.

Conclusion: For minimizing average access time in a general-purpose symbol table, a Hash Table is the most suitable implementation.