[andersentobias]

You don't need to involve a P vs NP discussion at all if you want to have a practical discussion to begin with. Big-Oh is sufficient?

[quickthrower2]

Profiling the code with different size inputs is sufficient

[kaba0]

I don’t know, I think knowing what algorithmic complexity is is really important, the problem is that all too many people just memorized that bubble sort is O(n^2) without understanding.

Also, the reason why profiling is imo not good enough is that you really shouldn’t even try to write an implementation with a known-to-be “slow” algorithm at the designed input size. For that, understanding O-notation is essential.