Circular Linked Lists
Explore the structure and use cases of circular linked lists. Learn how they differ from linear lists, manage nodes in a continuous loop, and apply them to problems like round-robin scheduling and multiplayer game turns.
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So far, we have explored two important types of linked lists: singly linked lists and doubly linked lists. In both of these structures, the nodes are arranged in a linear sequence. The list begins at a head node and ends when the last node points to NULL, indicating that there are no more nodes in the structure.
While this linear structure works well in many situations, some applications require a list that can be traversed continuously without reaching a terminating point. For example, an operating system may cycle through processes in round-robin scheduling, a music player may keep rotating through songs in a playlist, and a multiplayer game may move turns from one player to the next in a repeating order. In such cases, a different variant of linked lists is used: a circular linked list.
What is a circular linked list?
A circular linked list is a linked list in which the last node's next reference points back to the first node instead of NULL. This connection creates a circular structure where the list has no true beginning or end (a continuous loop). Starting from any node and repeatedly following the next pointer will eventually bring ...