Implement Set Without Built-ins | Dataford Interview Questions

Asked to implement Set without built-in functions.

Implement custom_set(values) without using Python's set, dict, or equivalent built-in container for membership tracking. Return the distinct integers in their original first-seen order.

Contract

Input: a list of integers.
Output: a list containing each distinct value once, preserving insertion order.
Handle negative values and repeated values.

Constraints

0 <= len(values) <= 1000
-10^9 <= values[i] <= 10^9
Values are integers
Do not use set, dict, or equivalent built-in membership containers

Function Signature

def custom_set(values):

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