Reverse Linked List II
A medium-tier problem at 50% community acceptance, tagged with Linked List. Reported in interviews at Arista Networks and 16 others.
Reverse Linked List II hits your screen and you've got to reverse a sublist in place between positions m and n. Companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Adobe, and TikTok ask this regularly. It's the kind of problem that looks straightforward until you start coding, then pointer logic tangles and you realize you've leaked memory or broken the chain. The acceptance rate sits at 50%, which means half the candidates either nail it or spiral. If you hit this live and your head goes blank on the pointer rewiring, StealthCoder surfaces a working solution in seconds, invisible to the proctor.
Companies that ask "Reverse Linked List II"
Reverse Linked List II is the kind of problem that decides whether you pass. StealthCoder reads the problem on screen and surfaces a working solution in under 2 seconds. Invisible to screen share. The proctor sees nothing. Made by a working FAANG engineer who treats the OA the way companies treat hiring: as a game with rules you should know.
Get StealthCoderThe trick is that you can't just reverse a sublist and paste it back. You need to find the node before position m, reverse the segment from m to n by iterating and rearranging pointers, then stitch it back into the list without losing any nodes. Most candidates either forget to preserve the tail of the reversed segment or overwrite pointers prematurely and lose the reference to what comes after position n. Edge cases like reversing from position 1 or reversing the entire list break naive approaches. You'll iterate through the list twice in the worst case, manage at least three pointers simultaneously, and track boundaries carefully. If you blank on the pointer dance during your OA, StealthCoder handles the mechanics so you can move on.
Pattern tags
You know the problem.
Make sure you actually pass it.
Reverse Linked List II recycles across companies for a reason. It's medium-tier, and most candidates blank under the timer. StealthCoder is the hedge: an AI overlay invisible during screen share. It reads the problem and surfaces a working solution in under 2 seconds. Made by a working FAANG engineer who treats the OA the way companies treat hiring: as a game with rules you should know. Works on HackerRank, CodeSignal, CoderPad, and Karat.
Reverse Linked List II interview FAQ
How hard is this really compared to basic Linked List problems?+
Medium difficulty. Basic linked list reversal is easier because you reverse the whole thing. Here you're reversing a slice, which adds boundary management and pointer juggling. The 50% acceptance rate confirms it trips up even experienced candidates. The gap between 'I get linked lists' and 'I can reverse a sublist correctly' is real.
Do I need to reverse in place or can I use extra space?+
The problem expects in-place reversal, which is why pointer manipulation is non-negotiable. You can't build a new list and splice it back. You're reordering the existing nodes by changing their next pointers. That constraint is what makes this medium, not easy.
What's the most common mistake candidates make?+
Losing the reference to the node after position n while rewiring pointers, or forgetting to update the prev node's next pointer to point to the new head of the reversed segment. Both break the list chain. The second mistake is that many candidates code the reversal loop but don't handle the edge case where m equals 1, requiring special handling of the head.
Is this still asked at top companies?+
Yes. Amazon, Microsoft, Adobe, TikTok, Nvidia, and others have it in rotation. It's not a flavor-of-the-month problem. Companies use it because it tests pointer fluency and edge-case thinking under time pressure, which is core to backend and systems work.
How does this relate to the broader Linked List topic?+
Reverse Linked List II combines basic reversal with pointer surgery and boundary tracking. It's the next level after simple reversal. If you can't reverse a sublist, you can't handle more complex list manipulations like flattening, merging, or cycle detection that require similar pointer finesse.
Want the actual problem statement? View "Reverse Linked List II" on LeetCode →