How to tell if an array is a permutation in O(n)?

Question

Input: A read-only array of N elements containing integer values from 1 to N (some integer values can appear more than once!). And a memory zone of a fixed<

Answer 1

Here's proof it can't be done:

Suppose by some artifice you have detected no duplicates in all but the last cell. Then the problem reduces to checking if that last cell contains a duplicate.

If you have no structured representation of the problem state so far, then you are reduced to performing a linear search over the entire previous input, for EACH cell. It's easy to see how this leaves you with a quadratic-time algorithm.

Now, suppose through some clever data structure that you actually know which number you expect to see last. Then certainly that knowledge takes at least enough bits to store the number you seek -- perhaps one memory cell? But there is a second-to-last number and a second-to-last sub-problem: then you must similarly represent a set of two possible numbers yet-to-be-seen. This certainly requires more storage than encoding only for one remaining number. By a progression of similar arguments, the size of the state must grow with the size of the problem, unless you're willing to accept a quadratic-time worst-case.

This is the time-space trade-off. You can have quadratic time and constant space, or linear time and linear space. You cannot have linear time and constant space.