> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://private-26.gitbook.io/notes/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://private-26.gitbook.io/notes/coding/medium/61.-rotate-list.md).

# 61. Rotate List

## Intuition

To rotate a linked list to the right by `k` places, we can think of the list as a circular structure. By connecting the tail to the head, the list becomes circular, and we can then break it at the appropriate position to simulate the rotation.

The idea is:

* Move the last `k` nodes to the front.
* But instead of manually detaching and reattaching nodes, we can use pointer arithmetic to find the new head efficiently.

## Complexity

| Space Complexity | Time Complexity |
| ---------------- | --------------- |
| $$\text{O}(1)$$  | $$\text{O}(N)$$ |

## Code

```java
public ListNode rotateRight(ListNode head, int k) {
    // Edge case: if list is empty or no rotation needed
    if (k == 0 || head == null) return head;

    ListNode tailPointer = head;
    int length = 1;

    // Count number of nodes and find the last node
    while (tailPointer.next != null) {
        tailPointer = tailPointer.next;
        length++;
    }

    // If there's only one node, no rotation needed
    if (length == 1) return head;

    // Make the list circular
    tailPointer.next = head;

    // Find effective number of steps to rotate
    int stepsToNewHead = length - (k % length);

    ListNode previousToNewHead = tailPointer;
    // Move both head and previous pointer forward to locate new head
    while (stepsToNewHead > 0) {
        previousToNewHead = head;
        head = head.next;
        stepsToNewHead--;
    }

    // Break the loop to finalize the new list
    previousToNewHead.next = null;

    return head;
}

```