Scribd
Upload
6 views

Coding Exercise 12 LL Has Loop ( Interview Question)

Uploaded by

Anh Nhat Nguyen
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
6 views

Coding Exercise 12 LL Has Loop ( Interview Question)

Uploaded by

Anh Nhat Nguyen
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

Instructions:

LL: Has Loop (⚡Interview Question)


Write a method called has_loop that is part of the linked list class.

The method should be able to detect if there is a cycle or loop present in the
linked list.

The method should utilize Floyd's cycle-finding algorithm, also known as the
"tortoise and hare" algorithm, to determine the presence of a loop efficiently.

The method should follow these guidelines:

Create two pointers, slow and fast, both initially pointing to the head of the
linked list.

Traverse the list with the slow pointer moving one step at a time, while the fast
pointer moves two steps at a time.

If there is a loop in the list, the fast pointer will eventually meet the slow
pointer. If this occurs, the method should return True.

If the fast pointer reaches the end of the list or encounters a None value, it
means there is no loop in the list. In this case, the method should return False.

*** Solution Explanation ***


def has_loop(self):
slow = self.head
fast = self.head
while fast is not None and fast.next is not None:
slow = slow.next
fast = fast.next.next
if slow == fast:
return True
return False

In this code, the has_loop method uses two pointers to traverse the linked list:
slow and fast. The slow pointer moves one step at a time, while the fast pointer
moves two steps at a time. If there is a loop in the linked list, the slow and fast
pointers will eventually meet, and the method will return True. If there is no loop
in the linked list, the fast pointer will eventually reach the end of the list, and
the method will return False.

You might also like