143 Reorder List

You are given the head of a singly linked-list. The list can be represented as:
L0 → L1 → … → Ln - 1 → Ln
Reorder the list to be on the following form:
L0 → Ln → L1 → Ln - 1 → L2 → Ln - 2 → …
You may not modify the values in the list's nodes. Only nodes themselves may be changed.

Example 1:

1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4
       v
1 -> 4 -> 2 -> 3

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

Example 2:

1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4 -> 5
          v
1 -> 5 -> 2 -> 4 -> 3

Input: head = [1,2,3,4,5]
Output: [1,5,2,4,3]

Constraints:

  • The number of nodes in the list is in the range [1, 5 * 104].
  • 1 <= Node.val <= 1000
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class Solution:
    def reorderList(self, head: ListNode) -> None:
        if not head:
            return 
        
        # find the middle of linked list [Problem 876]
        # in 1->2->3->4->5->6 find 4 
        slow = fast = head
        while fast and fast.next:
            slow = slow.next
            fast = fast.next.next 
            
        # reverse the second part of the list [Problem 206]
        # convert 1->2->3->4->5->6 into 1->2->3->4 and 6->5->4
        # reverse the second half in-place
        prev, curr = None, slow
        while curr:
            curr.next, prev, curr = prev, curr, curr.next       

        # merge two sorted linked lists [Problem 21]
        # merge 1->2->3->4 and 6->5->4 into 1->6->2->5->3->4
        first, second = head, prev
        while second.next:
            first.next, first = second, first.next
            second.next, second = first, second.next


'''
Using recursion
'''
# Definition for singly-linked list.
# class ListNode:
#     def __init__(self, val=0, next=None):
#         self.val = val
#         self.next = next
class Solution:
    def reorderList(self, head: Optional[ListNode]) -> None:
        """
        Do not return anything, modify head in-place instead.
        """
        prev = slow = fast = head
        while fast and fast.next:
            prev = slow
            slow = slow.next
            fast = fast.next.next

        prev.next = None
        last, rev_head = self.reverseList(slow)
        last.next = None
        self.mergeList(head, rev_head)

    def reverseList(self, head: Optional[ListNode]) -> Optional[ListNode]:
        if not head:
            return None, None
        if not head.next:
            return head, head
        last, new_head = self.reverseList(head.next)
        last.next = head
        return head, new_head
    
    def mergeList(
        self,
        l1: Optional[ListNode],
        l2: Optional[ListNode]
    ) -> Optional[ListNode]:
        if not l1:
            return l2
        if not l2:
            return l1
        l1.next, l2.next = l2, self.mergeList(l1.next, l2.next)
        return l1