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MediumHigh Frequency25 min

Merge Lists & K-way Merge

Merge sorted lists using dummy node technique and a min-heap for K lists.

Merge two sorted linked lists by always picking the smaller head. Use a dummy node to avoid edge cases.

Merge Two Sorted Linked Lists

Merge Visualization

Linked List1 / 5
L1
1
->
3
->
L2
2
->
4
->
null

List1: 1→3. List2: 2→4

Two sorted lists. Use dummy head. tail = dummy.

Code

Merge Two Lists

O(m+n)O(1) space — no extra array, just pointer rewiring
Step-by-step1 / 4
l1
1
next
node 0
l2
2
next
node 1
node
3
next
node 2
node
4
next
node 3
node
5
next
node 4
node
6
next
node 5
null

Dummy→null. l1=1, l2=2

Initialize dummy and tail.