Worst time complexity for finding a median number for a list and array data structure This was a question that came up in a past exam paper in my computer science course, it states:

"There are two simple, un-optimised sorted data structures, each storing
n numbers. The first is a list; the second is an array. What is the
worst-case complexity of extracting the median number from each data
structure? Are the averages cases different? Why?"

I would like to know the answer to this question as I am confused on what is being asked? Should we not be analyzing algorithms like binary search and not the data structures themselves?
The term "data structure" typically refers to a way to organize/store data, and the operations to create, maintain, and access them.

The asker is probably expecting you to assume specific implementations, probably as given in the course, then come up with algorithms to access the median, and discuss their respective runtime cost.