Middle of the Linked List

Description

Given the head of a singly linked list, return the middle node of the linked list.

If there are two middle nodes, return the second middle node.

Example 1:

Input: head = [1,2,3,4,5] Output: [3,4,5] Explanation: The middle node of the list is node 3.

Example 2:

Input: head = [1,2,3,4,5,6] Output: [4,5,6] Explanation: Since the list has two middle nodes with values 3 and 4, we return the second one.

Constraints:

• The number of nodes in the list is in the range [1, 100].
• 1 <= Node.val <= 100

Code

Slow & Fast Pointer

經典快慢指標的技巧，應用在 Linked List Cycle、Linked List Cycle II、Rotate List 等等題目中。 Time Complexity: $O(N)$, Space Complexity: $O(1)$

/**
 * Definition for singly-linked list.
 * struct ListNode {
 *     int val;
 *     struct ListNode *next;
 * };
 */
struct ListNode* middleNode(struct ListNode* head) {
    struct ListNode* slow = head;
    struct ListNode* fast = head; 
    while(fast && fast->next) {
        slow = slow->next;
        fast = fast->next->next;
    }
    return slow;
}

/**
 * Definition for singly-linked list.
 * struct ListNode {
 *     int val;
 *     ListNode *next;
 *     ListNode() : val(0), next(nullptr) {}
 *     ListNode(int x) : val(x), next(nullptr) {}
 *     ListNode(int x, ListNode *next) : val(x), next(next) {}
 * };
 */
class Solution {
public:
    ListNode* middleNode(ListNode* head) {
        ListNode* slow = head;
        ListNode* fast = head;
        while(fast && fast->next) {
            slow = slow->next;
            fast = fast->next->next;
        }
        return slow;
    }
};

Source

• Middle of the Linked List - LeetCode