{ 1 , 2 , 3 , … , N+1 } i.e. the list is a permutation of the numbers 1 … N+1 . Your task is to output the missing number.
missing = 0 for i = 1 … N+1 missing ^= i repeat N times read x missing ^= x output missing We prove the sum‑based algorithm; the XOR version follows the same line of reasoning. Lemma 1 Let S = Σ_{i=1}^{N+1} i . Let T = Σ_{j=1}^{N} a_j be the sum of the numbers actually present. If exactly one element m of {1,…,N+1} is missing, then S - T = m . 354. Missax
The input may contain several test cases. Each test case is described as follows { 1 , 2 , 3 , … , N+1 } i
x = 1 xor 2 xor … xor (N+1) xor a1 xor a2 … xor aN Every value that appears twice cancels out, leaving the missing number. Both approaches are linear in time and constant in memory. For each test case missing = 0 for i = 1 …