Remove Nth Node From End of List
A medium-tier problem at 49% community acceptance, tagged with Linked List, Two Pointers. Reported in interviews at Qualcomm and 14 others.
Remove Nth Node From End of List hits your screen during assessments at Meta, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Bloomberg. About half of candidates who see it don't solve it cleanly. The trap is obvious: count the list, then delete. The actual trick is two pointers moving at different speeds so you never loop twice. If you blank on the pattern when the clock's running, StealthCoder surfaces a working solution invisible to the proctor, so you move on without tanking your score.
Companies that ask "Remove Nth Node From End of List"
Remove Nth Node From End of List 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 StealthCoderMost candidates try to count the list length first, then traverse again to find the node before the target. That works but wastes a pass. The clean solution uses two pointers with a gap: advance the fast pointer n steps ahead, then move both together until fast reaches the end. Now slow is exactly one node before the target. The hidden gotcha is the head node itself. If n equals the list length, there's no 'previous' node to rewire. You have to catch that case or your solution crashes on valid input. Linked List problems reward spatial thinking over raw speed. When you hit this live, StealthCoder runs the two-pointer logic in seconds and feeds you a solution that handles edge cases.
Pattern tags
You know the problem.
Make sure you actually pass it.
Remove Nth Node From End of List 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.
Remove Nth Node From End of List interview FAQ
Is this problem still asked at FAANG?+
Yes. Meta, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft all report asking it. Bloomberg and Adobe too. It's a Linked List staple. Acceptance rate hovers around 49%, so it's not a gimme. The problem looks simple but rewards understanding of pointer mechanics and edge cases.
What's the real trick everyone misses?+
The two-pointer gap. Candidates jump straight to two-pass solutions. The one-pass trick is: space the pointers n steps apart, then advance both together until the fast one hits the end. Now slow is exactly where you need to be. Also nail the head-deletion edge case or you'll fail test cases silently.
How does this relate to Two Pointers as a topic?+
This is the canonical Two Pointers pattern for Linked Lists. It teaches you how pointers at different speeds can encode information (distance) without explicit counters. That same pattern shows up in cycle detection, palindrome checks, and list merges. Nail it here and the pattern transfers.
What's the acceptance rate telling me about difficulty?+
49% acceptance is not bad but not trivial. It means roughly half of people who attempt it walk away with a working solution, usually in an interview setting. It's classified MEDIUM for good reason. The idea is straightforward but implementation details trip up candidates who rush or don't test edge cases.
Can I do this without modifying the list?+
You have to delete the node, so you're modifying the list by design. What you can't do is use extra space for a new list. The two-pointer solution is O(1) space and one pass. If you're burning time on alternate approaches during your OA, you're losing points. Stick to the standard.
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