The data structure is considered to be linear if the data elements construct a sequence of a linear list. The elements are adjacently attached to each other and in a specified order. It consumes linear memory space, the data elements are required to store in a sequential manner in the memory. While implementing the linear data structure the necessary amount of memory is declared previously. It does not make a good utilization of memory and result in memory wastage. The data element are visited sequentially where only a single element can be directly reached.
Non-linear data structure does not arrange the data consecutively rather it is arranged in sorted order. In this, the data elements can be attached to more than one element exhibiting the hierarchical relationship which involves the relationship between the child, parent, and grandparent. In the non-linear data structure, the traversal of data elements and insertion or deletion are not done sequentially.
Read for mode details:- https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/difference-between-linear-and-non-linear-data-structures/