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LeetCode 88, Easy. Topics: Array, Two Pointers, Sorting. View on LeetCode. Generate this problem as a practice environment: tested reference solution, 18 parametrized pytest cases, and a playground notebook:

Problem

You are given two integer arrays nums1 and nums2, sorted in non-decreasing order, and two integers m and n, representing the number of elements in nums1 and nums2 respectively. Merge nums1 and nums2 into a single array sorted in non-decreasing order. The final sorted array should not be returned by the function, but instead be stored inside the array nums1. To accommodate this, nums1 has a length of m + n, where the first m elements denote the elements that should be merged, and the last n elements are set to 0 and should be ignored. nums2 has a length of n.

Examples

Explanation: The arrays we are merging are [1,2,3] and [2,5,6]. The result of the merge is [<u>1</u>,<u>2</u>,2,<u>3</u>,5,6], with the underlined elements coming from nums1.
Explanation: The arrays we are merging are [1] and []. The result of the merge is [1].
Explanation: The arrays we are merging are [] and [1]. The result of the merge is [1]. Note that because m = 0, there are no elements in nums1. The 0 is only there to ensure the merge result can fit in nums1.

Constraints

  • nums1.length == m + n
  • nums2.length == n
  • 0 <= m, n <= 200
  • 1 <= m + n <= 200
  • -10^9 <= nums1[i], nums2[j] <= 10^9
Follow up: Can you come up with an algorithm that runs in O(m + n) time?

Solution

Reference implementation from solution.py on GitHub, full suite in test_solution.py:

Complexity

Tags

NeetCode 250, NeetCode All.
Last modified on August 25, 2026