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This week, we’ll solve the most asked Linked List problem. Every big tech company has asked this problem. Can you solve it without looking at the solution?

Today we will cover:

• Reverse Linked List

• Eventual vs Strong Consistency

Read time: under 4 minutes

CODING CHALLENGE

Reverse Linked List

Given the head of a singly linked list, reverse the list, and return the reversed list.

Example 1:

Input: head = [1,2,3,4,5]
Output: [5,4,3,2,1]

Example 2:

Input: head = [1,2]
Output: [2,1]

Solve the problem here before reading the solution.

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SOLUTION

To reverse a linked list, we can use three pointers: one for the previous node, one for the current node, and one for the next node.

We'll iterate through the list, changing the direction of each pointer.

For each node, we store its next node, update its next pointer to point to the previous node, and move our pointers one step forward.

The time complexity of this solution is O(n), where n is the number of nodes in the linked list.

SYSTEM DESIGN

Eventual vs Strong Consistency

When building distributed systems, one of the biggest challenges is keeping data consistent across multiple servers. You have two main options: Strong Consistency and Eventual Consistency. Let's understand when to use each approach.

Strong Consistency ensures that all servers have the exact same data at all times. When you write data to one server, the system waits until all other servers have updated before confirming the write.

While Strong Consistency gives accurate data, it comes with a cost. The system has to wait for all servers to respond, which makes writes slower. If some servers are down or slow to respond, the whole system slows down. This approach works well for systems that need absolute accuracy, like banking transactions.

Eventual Consistency takes a different approach. It allows servers to have different versions of data temporarily, but ensures they all match up eventually. When you write data to one server, the system confirms the write immediately and updates other servers in the background. This makes writes much faster since you don't have to wait for all servers to sync.

The trade-off is that different users might see different versions of data for a short time. For example, when you post on social media, some of your followers might see your post immediately while others see it a few seconds later. This is fine for many applications where perfect accuracy isn't critical.

Here's a comparison of both approaches:

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NEWS

This Week in the Tech World

Meta Launching Commercial LLaMA: Meta will release a commercial version of its open-source large language model. Unlike OpenAI and Google, Meta emphasizes open-source AI development for building applications.

Google Launches “Career Dreamer”: Google's new AI experiment helps users explore job possibilities by finding patterns between skills and interests. Available only in the US, it can generate career statements and workshop resumes with Gemini.

Apple's $500B US Investment: Apple will open a 250,000-square-foot AI server manufacturing facility in Houston by 2026 as part of a $500 billion US investment. The plan includes hiring 20,000 employees and follows CEO Cook's meeting with President Trump.

Perplexity AI Creates Venture Fund: AI search company Perplexity is launching a $50 million fund for early-stage AI startups. The fund will leverage insights from its network of 80,000 developers.

Meta Boosts Executive Bonuses: Meta increased executive bonuses from 75% to 200% of base salary, excluding CEO Zuckerberg. This comes just one week after laying off 5% of its workforce and reducing employee stock options by about 10%.

TikTok Lays Off Trust Team: TikTok is cutting members of its trust and safety team despite CEO Chew's earlier $2 billion commitment. Layoffs have begun globally as the company faces an April 5 deadline to find a US buyer.

Amazon Unveils Alexa+: Amazon launched an AI-powered Alexa+ for $19.99 monthly, free for Prime members. It can book reservations, buy tickets, and complete complex tasks independently. Early access starts next month.

Alibaba Opens AI Video Models: Alibaba released four AI video generation models for free global use. The open-source Wan2.1 models can create images and videos from text and image inputs.

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