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12. Contains Duplicate

easyAsked at Ramp

Determine whether any value appears at least twice in an array.

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

Problem

Given an integer array nums, return true if any value appears at least twice in the array, and return false if every element is distinct.

Constraints

  • 1 <= nums.length <= 10^5
  • -10^9 <= nums[i] <= 10^9

Examples

Example 1

Input
nums = [1,2,3,1]
Output
true

Example 2

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

Approaches

1. Brute force

Nested loop comparing every pair.

Time
O(n^2)
Space
O(1)
function containsDuplicate(nums) {
  for (let i = 0; i < nums.length; i++) {
    for (let j = i + 1; j < nums.length; j++) {
      if (nums[i] === nums[j]) return true;
    }
  }
  return false;
}

Tradeoff:

2. Hash set

Insert into a set; if the value was already present, we have a duplicate.

Time
O(n)
Space
O(n)
function containsDuplicate(nums) {
  const seen = new Set();
  for (const n of nums) {
    if (seen.has(n)) return true;
    seen.add(n);
  }
  return false;
}

Tradeoff:

Ramp-specific tips

Ramp grades this on early-exit reasoning, which is exactly the shape of their vendor-matching dedup pass — bail at the first collision rather than scanning the whole batch.

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