[tensor]

For one, you would have to throw arrays of different sizes at it and produce a plot to see O(n^ 2) type growth. But in general that still doesn't tell you what the complexity analysis does. The worst case could depend on a particular input type. E.g. one containing a particular pattern. You won't know to test that without doing the analysis though.

Also, worst case complexity is certainly measurable by customers. They notice when your product becomes usably slow either over time or perhaps suddenly when given a particular input.

[mikescar]

It's not a complex algorithm, it's a static website run from wordpress that could be faster by any of these: S3, CloudFront, memcache, APC, or even file caching.

Yes, you could spin up any number of AWS to throw ab / httperf traffic at it, but why? HN has demonstrated how inadequate their server solution is.