1/2/25, 12:15 PM Reverse a Stack Using Recursion

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Admin AfterAcademy
6 Oct 2020

Reverse a stack using recursion

Difficulty: Easy

Asked in: Yahoo, Amazon, Adobe

Understanding The Problem

Problem Description

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1/2/25, 12:15 PM Reverse a Stack Using Recursion

Given a stack of integers st , write a program to reverse the stack using

recursion .

Problem Note

You are not allowed to use loop constructs like while, for, etc, Return
st after reversing it using recursion. It is mandatory to reverse st
using recursion.

Example 1

Input: st = [1, 5, 3, 2, 4]
Output:[4, 2, 3, 5, 1]
Explanation: After reversing the stack [1, 5, 3, 2, 4] becomes [4, 2, 3, 5,

Example 2

Input: st = [5, 17, 100, 11]

Output: [11, 100, 17, 5]
Explanation: After reversing the stack [5, 17, 100, 11] becomes [11, 100, 17

Solution
The problem name itself addresses the solution to be a recursive solution.
To understand what is a recursive solution, please refer here .

You must have known that a stack usually comprises two operations, i.e.
push and pop operations on the top of the stack. So, If we have to
reverse a stack, then we have to pop the elements of the stack and push it to
another auxiliary stack one by one. In this way, the auxiliary stack will be
the same stack in reverse order.

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But we are not looking to use an auxiliary stack, but we can use recursion.
And a recursive function behaves like a stack. So, What we are going to do
that is we can create a recursive function and pop all stack items and stores
the popped item in the function call stack. And when the input stack
becomes empty, we push the new item stored in the call stack at the bottom
of the input stack.

You can practice this problem here.

In short, we will take out the top element of the input stack and store it in
the recursion stack until the stack becomes empty and while returning to
the previous state of recursion, we push the stored element in each
recursion stack at the bottom of the input stack.

Look at the below example:

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1/2/25, 12:15 PM Reverse a Stack Using Recursion

Solution Steps

Create a recursive function recur to reverse the stack.

Pop the top element in each stack of recursion and hold the element in
function call Stack until we reach the end of the stack

While moving back in the recursion tree, push the held element of each
recursion call stack at the bottom of the stack.

Pseudo Code

int insert_at_bottom(int x, stack st) {

if(st is empty) {
st.push(x)
}
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1/2/25, 12:15 PM Reverse a Stack Using Recursion

else {
int a = st.top()
st.pop()
insert_at_bottom(x)
st.push(a)
}
}
void reverse(stack st) {
if(st is not empty) {
int st = st.top()
st.pop()
reverse(st)
insert_at_bottom(x, st)
}
}
// driver function
int[] reverseStack(int[] st) {
reverse(st)
return st
}

Complexity Analysis

Time Complexity: O(n²)

Space Complexity: O(n)

Critical Ideas To Think

Why is the time complexity is O(n²)? Answer : For each element on top
of the stack we are popping the whole stack out placing that top
element at the bottom which takes O(n) operations. And this O(n)
operations are performed for every value of the stack leaving a
quadratic time complexity.

How we are inserting the top element at the bottom of the stack?
Answer : We pop each top element of the stack and store it in the call
stack frame until the stack becomes empty. As soon as the stack

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1/2/25, 12:15 PM Reverse a Stack Using Recursion

becomes empty, we put the top element on the empty stack and then
we push all the elements stored in the call stack frame while returning
down the recursion tree.

Take an example yourself and follow the above steps to test how the
solution is working.

Can you reverse a stack without recursion in linear time complexity? If

yes, then what data structure will you use for the solution?

Suggested Problems To Solve

Sort a stack using recursion

Reverse a Doubly linked list using recursion

Sort a stack using a temporary stack

Infix to Postfix using different Precedence Values for In-Stack and Out-
Stack

Reverse a number using stack

Reverse a stack without using extra space in linear time.

Please comment down below if you have a better insight in the above approach.

Happy Coding, Enjoy Algorithms!

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