fast slow pointer — 2 Technical Articles

Dec 27, 2025 · Fundamentals

Mastering the Fast‑Slow Pointer: Detect Cycles, Palindromes, and Loops in O(1) Space

This article explains the fast‑slow (tortoise‑hare) pointer technique, lists its common applications such as cycle detection, middle‑node finding, palindrome checking, and demonstrates three LeetCode‑style solutions with step‑by‑step explanations and full Python code.

LeetCodealgorithmcycle detection

0 likes · 7 min read

Mastering the Fast‑Slow Pointer: Detect Cycles, Palindromes, and Loops in O(1) Space

JavaEdge

Aug 17, 2021 · Fundamentals

Detecting Cycles in a Linked List with Fast and Slow Pointers (Java)

This article explains how to determine whether a singly linked list contains a cycle using the fast‑slow pointer technique, derives the mathematical reasoning for locating the cycle entry point, and provides a complete Java implementation that returns the node where the cycle begins or null if none.

algorithmcycle detectionfast slow pointer

0 likes · 4 min read

Detecting Cycles in a Linked List with Fast and Slow Pointers (Java)