Searching techniques involve finding a value with specified properties within a collection. Linear searching compares each item sequentially until a match is found, taking O(n) time. Binary searching requires a sorted list and compares the middle item first, reducing the search space by half with each comparison, taking O(log n) time on average. Sorting rearranges elements in ascending or descending order using techniques like bubble, insertion, and selection sort that have O(n^2) worst-case time and quicksort that has an average case of O(n log n) time.