A linked list can be traversed recursively by treating the list as a self-similar structure: process the current node, then recur on the sublist beginning at its successor, with a null pointer serving as the base case that terminates the recursion. Whether the work is placed before or after the recursive call determines the order of output — pre-order placement yields forward order, post-order placement (work performed as the call stack unwinds) yields reverse order without any modification to the list itself. This belongs to data structures and algorithms and illustrates the general duality between explicit iteration and the implicit stack of recursion: the recursive traversal consumes O(n) stack frames where an iterative walk needs a single pointer, so recursion is a poor trade for forward traversal but a natural one for reverse output, which inherently requires storing the elements somewhere.
A linked list can be traversed recursively by treating the list as a self-similar structure: process the current node, then recur on the sublist beginning at its successor, with a null pointer servin…