287-find-the-duplicate-number

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Description

Given an array of integers nums containing n + 1 integers where each integer is in the range [1, n] inclusive.

There is only one repeated number in nums, return this repeated number.

You must solve the problem without modifying the array nums and uses only constant extra space.

 

Example 1:

Input: nums = [1,3,4,2,2]
Output: 2

Example 2:

Input: nums = [3,1,3,4,2]
Output: 3

 

Constraints:

• 1 <= n <= 105
• nums.length == n + 1
• 1 <= nums[i] <= n
• All the integers in nums appear only once except for precisely one integer which appears two or more times.

 

Follow up:

• How can we prove that at least one duplicate number must exist in nums?
• Can you solve the problem in linear runtime complexity?

Solution(Python)

class Solution:
    def findDuplicate(self, nums):
        # Find the intersection point of the two runners.
        while nums[0] != nums[nums[0]]:
            nums[nums[0]],  nums[0] = nums[0],nums[nums[0]]
        return nums[0]