We are left with following problem, upon which TcT provides the certificate YES(?,O(n^1)). Strict Trs: { duplicate(Cons(x, xs)) -> Cons(x, Cons(x, duplicate(xs))) , duplicate(Nil()) -> Nil() , goal(x) -> duplicate(x) } Obligation: innermost runtime complexity Answer: YES(?,O(n^1)) The input was oriented with the instance of 'Small Polynomial Path Order (PS,1-bounded)' as induced by the safe mapping safe(duplicate) = {}, safe(Cons) = {1, 2}, safe(Nil) = {}, safe(goal) = {} and precedence goal > duplicate . Following symbols are considered recursive: {duplicate} The recursion depth is 1. For your convenience, here are the satisfied ordering constraints: duplicate(Cons(; x, xs);) > Cons(; x, Cons(; x, duplicate(xs;))) duplicate(Nil();) > Nil() goal(x;) > duplicate(x;) Hurray, we answered YES(?,O(n^1))