← Pointer Manipulation

Micro-Drill #24 — Delete node by value

Pointer Manipulation Target: 15s

Dummy-head deletion avoids special-casing the head node. Essential linked list technique.

dummy = Node(0)
dummy.next = head
prev, cur = dummy, head
while cur:
    if cur.val == target:
        prev.next = cur.next
        break
    prev, cur = cur, cur.next
head = dummy.next

Type it from memory. Go.

Practice Problems

• 203. Remove Linked List Elements
• 237. Delete Node in a Linked List

Related Coding Drills

• Drill #10 — Delete node at position k Easy
• Drill #14 — Find middle node Easy
• Drill #11 — Reverse a linked list Easy