287. Find the Duplicate Number

Medium


Given an array of integers nums containing n + 1 integers where each integer is in the range [1, n] inclusive.

There is only one repeated number in nums, return this repeated number.

You must solve the problem without modifying the array nums and uses only constant extra space.

Example 1:

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

Example 2:

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

Constraints:

  • 1 <= n <= 105

  • nums.length == n + 1

  • 1 <= nums[i] <= n

  • All the integers in nums appear only once except for precisely one integer which appears two or more times.

Follow up:

  • How can we prove that at least one duplicate number must exist in nums?

  • Can you solve the problem in linear runtime complexity?

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