Introduction to In-Place Manipulation of a Linked List
Explore the in-place manipulation pattern for linked lists to efficiently reverse, rotate, or restructure nodes using constant extra space. Understand how to apply this technique to coding problems involving linked lists, optimizing both time and space complexity for technical interviews.
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About the pattern
The in-place manipulation of a linked list pattern allows us to modify a linked list without using any additional memory. In-place refers to an algorithm that processes or modifies a data structure using only the existing memory space, without requiring additional memory proportional to the input size. This pattern is best suited for problems where we need to modify the structure of the linked list, i.e., the order in which nodes are linked together. For example, some problems require a reversal of a set of nodes in a linked list which can extend to reversing the whole linked list. Instead of making a new linked list with reversed links, we can do it in place without using additional memory. ...