# Cycle Detection with $O(1)$ Memory

The easiest way to detect cycles in a linked list is to put all the seen nodes into a set and check that you don't have a repeat as you traverse the list. This unfortunately can blow up in memory for large lists.

Floyd's Tortoise and Hare algorithm gets around this by using two points that iterate through the list at different speeds. It's not immediately obvious why this should work.

/*
* For your reference:
*
* SinglyLinkedListNode {
*     int data;
*     SinglyLinkedListNode* next;
* };
*
*/
namespace {
template <typename Node>
bool has_cycle(const Node* const tortoise, const Node* const hare) {
if (tortoise == hare) return true;
if (hare->next == nullptr || hare->next->next == nullptr) return false;
return has_cycle(tortoise->next, hare->next->next);
}
}  // namespace

bool has_cycle(SinglyLinkedListNode* head) {
if (head == nullptr ||
head->next == nullptr ||
head->next->next == nullptr) return false;
return has_cycle(head, head->next->next);
}


The above algorithm solves HackerRank's Cycle Detection.

To see why this work, consider a cycle that starts at index $\mu$ and has length $l$. If there is a cycle, we should have $x_i = x_j$ for some $i,j \geq \mu$ and $i \neq j$. This should occur when $$i - \mu \equiv j - \mu \pmod{l}. \label{eqn:cond}$$

In the tortoise and hare algorithm, the tortoise moves with speed 1, and the hare moves with speed 2. Let $i$ be the location of the tortoise. Let $j$ be the location of the hare.

The cycle starts at $\mu$, so the earliest that we could see a cycle is when $i = \mu$. Then, $j = 2\mu$. Let $k$ be the number of steps we take after $i = \mu$. We'll satisfy Equation \ref{eqn:cond} when \begin{align*} i - \mu \equiv j - \mu \pmod{l} &\Leftrightarrow \left(\mu + k\right) - \mu \equiv \left(2\mu + 2k\right) - \mu \pmod{l} \\ &\Leftrightarrow k \equiv \mu + 2k \pmod{l} \\ &\Leftrightarrow 0 \equiv \mu + k \pmod{l}. \end{align*}

This will happen for some $k \leq l$, so the algorithm terminates within $\mu + k$ steps if there is a cycle. Otherwise, if there is no cycle the algorithm terminates when it reaches the end of the list.

## Comments

No comments have been posted yet. You can be the first!