Find Loop in Linked List | Dataford Interview Questions

Describe how you would detect a cycle in a linked list and remove it.

Use Floyd's tortoise-and-hare algorithm and modify the list in place. For grading, represent the list as nodes, where each node is [value, next_index], use -1 for null, and provide the head index. Return the modified nodes array with the cycle removed.

Constraints

0 <= len(nodes) <= 1000
Each node is represented as [value, next_index].
0 <= value <= 10^9
Each next_index is -1 or a valid index in nodes.
head is -1 for an empty list or a valid index in nodes.
The structure has at most one reachable cycle from head.

Function Signature

def remove_cycle(nodes, head):

Your question is Find Loop in Linked List. Start with the requirements in the Question tab.

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Problem

Describe how you would detect a cycle in a linked list and remove it.

Constraints

0 <= len(nodes) <= 1000
Each node is represented as [value, next_index].
0 <= value <= 10^9
Each next_index is -1 or a valid index in nodes.
head is -1 for an empty list or a valid index in nodes.
The structure has at most one reachable cycle from head.

Function Signature

def remove_cycle(nodes, head):

Your question is Find Loop in Linked List. Start with the requirements in the Question tab.

Run and submit as often as you like. When you're ready, talk me through your approach or go straight to the code.