Find the Duplicate Number

Given an array of integers nums containing n + 1 integers where each integer is in the range [1, n] inclusive.

There is only one repeated number in nums, return this repeated number.

You must solve the problem without modifying the array nums and uses only constant extra space.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [1,3,4,2,2]
Output: 2

Example 2:

Input: nums = [3,1,3,4,2]
Output: 3

Constraints:

• 1 <= n <= 105
• nums.length == n + 1
• 1 <= nums[i] <= n
• All the integers in nums appear only once except for precisely one integer which appears two or more times.

Follow up:

• How can we prove that at least one duplicate number must exist in nums?
• Can you solve the problem in linear runtime complexity?

SOLUTION:

class Solution:
    def findDuplicate(self, nums: List[int]) -> int:
        nums.sort()
        curr = nums[0]
        for num in nums[1:]:
            if num == curr:
                return num
            curr = num