LeetCode 19 level 2

Given a linked list, remove the n-th node from the end of list and return its head.

Example:

Given linked list: 1->2->3->4->5, and n = 2.

After removing the second node from the end, the linked list becomes 1->2->3->5.

Note:

Given n will always be valid.

Follow up:

Could you do this in one pass?

Note: It is easy to solve the problem but hard to do it in just one pass. My first solution was to declare a pointer vector and store all the pointers. However, things did not go as I thought. I think the magic of the linked list made my solution failed. It's hard to know whether you need a malloc or not.

After reviewing some solutions posted on the Internet. I found the solution to this problem is a fast-slow-pointer. The speed of two pointers should be the same but the fast pointer should always be n-steps further than the slow pointer. Therefore, when the fast go to the end of the linked list. The item that the slow pointer point to will be the n-th node that is needed to be removed.

Solution:

class Solution {
public:
    ListNode* removeNthFromEnd(ListNode* head, int n) {
        ListNode *fast;fast=head;
        ListNode *slow;slow=head;
        for(int i=0;i<n;++i){
            fast=fast->next;
        }
        if(fast==NULL){
            return slow->next;
        }
        while(true){
            fast=fast->next;
            if(fast == NULL){
                slow->next=slow->next->next;
                return head;
            }
            else{
                slow=slow->next;
            }
        }
    }
};