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5. Remove Element

easyAsked at Chegg

Remove all occurrences of a value in place — Chegg uses this to validate two-pointer instincts on filter-content tasks.

By Alex Chen, Founder, InterviewChamp.AI · Last verified

Problem

Given an integer array nums and an integer val, remove all occurrences of val in nums in-place. Return the number of elements that are not equal to val.

Constraints

  • 0 <= nums.length <= 100
  • 0 <= nums[i], val <= 100

Examples

Example 1

Input
nums = [3,2,2,3], val = 3
Output
2, nums = [2,2,_,_]

Example 2

Input
nums = [0,1,2,2,3,0,4,2], val = 2
Output
5, nums = [0,1,4,0,3,_,_,_]

Approaches

1. Filter copy

Build a new array of non-val elements.

Time
O(n)
Space
O(n)
const out = nums.filter(x => x !== val);
for (let i = 0; i < out.length; i++) nums[i] = out[i];
return out.length;

Tradeoff:

2. Two pointers

Write index advances only on keep; in-place, O(1) extra space.

Time
O(n)
Space
O(1)
function removeElement(nums, val) {
  let k = 0;
  for (let i = 0; i < nums.length; i++) {
    if (nums[i] !== val) {
      nums[k++] = nums[i];
    }
  }
  return k;
}

Tradeoff:

Chegg-specific tips

Chegg engineers prefer the in-place pointer pattern because filter pipelines over student-submitted content run on streaming buffers without temporary copies.

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Output

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