While working on a problem from Leetcode, I encountered the task of creating a function to check if an array is a palindrome. The suggested solution involved converting the array into a linked list and then checking if its elements form a palindrome sequence.
My initial thought was that using a linked list might provide a more efficient solution compared to solely working with arrays. However, considering that the function takes an array as input, it seemed counterintuitive to convert it into a linked list for efficiency purposes.
Creating a linked list from an array requires accessing all elements, which could be as time-consuming as iterating through the array itself by comparing elements from both ends. Maybe there is some advantage in accessing elements from the end of a linked list instead of the front, but the overall process doesn't seem significantly different in terms of processing power.
I implemented a code snippet below to solve the palindrome problem using arrays:
function isPalindrome(array){
const numOfTests = Math.floor(array.length/2);
for(let i = 0; i < numOfTests; i++){
let j = array.length - 1 - i;
if(array[i] !== array[j]){
return false;
}
}
return true;
}
console.log(isPalindrome([1,1,1,2]))My main question revolves around why linked lists are being recommended over arrays for this problem. Is my function less efficient than one utilizing linked lists for the same task? Does incorporating linked lists offer any tangible advantages in this scenario beyond testing programming skills?
Edit:
The provided code template includes the following:
/**
* Definition for singly-linked list.
* function ListNode(val, next) {
* this.val = (val===undefined ? 0 : val)
* this.next = (next===undefined ? null : next)
* }
*/
/**
* @param {ListNode} head
* @return {boolean}
*/
var isPalindrome = function(head) {
};
Additional information from the question:
The number of nodes in the list ranges from 1 to 105. 0 <= Node.val <= 9
Follow up: Can you achieve this in O(n) time and O(1) space?
The follow-up suggestions hint at possible performance concerns with the current algorithm, possibly indicating that using linked lists could address these issues effectively.
The problem can be found at: