Code Challenge Solver

Absolutely, tackling this challenge involves understanding how to manipulate array indices and iterate through an array manually, since we can't use built-in methods like reverse. Logic: The logic behind reversing an array is to swap the elements from the start with the elements from the end, moving towards the center. If you imagine the array as a line of numbers, you want to take the number from one end and swap it with the number from the opposite end, and keep doing this until you reach the middle. Strategy: Identify the first and the last elements of the array to be swapped. Swap these elements. Move the position of the first element forward and the last element backward. Repeat the process until the first position reaches or passes the middle of the array. Code: Here's the JavaScript function that implements the above logic: function reverseArray(arr) { // Initialize start and end indices let start = 0; let end = arr.length - 1; // Loop until the start index is less than or equal to the end index while (start < end) { // Swap elements at start and end indices let temp = arr[start]; arr[start] = arr[end]; arr[end] = temp; // Move the start index forward and the end index backward start++; end--; } // Return the reversed array return arr; } Explanation: Initialization: We start by initializing two pointers, start and end. start is set to the index of the first element, and end is set to the index of the last element. Looping: We use a while loop to iterate through the array. The condition start < end ensures that we only swap elements until we have processed the entire array. Swapping: Inside the loop, we temporarily store the value at the start index in a variable temp. We then set the value at the start index to the value at the end index, and finally, we set the value at the end index to the value stored in temp. Updating Indices: After the swap, we increment the start index and decrement the end index to move towards the center of the array. Termination: The loop terminates when start is equal to or greater than end, which means we have reached the middle of the array and all elements have been swapped. Return: The function then returns the modified array (which is now reversed). This function directly modifies the input array in place. If you need to preserve the original array, you would first make a copy of it (which technically would involve using a built-in method, so depending on the strictness of the "no built-in methods" rule, this might not be allowed). This solution is efficient because it only loops through half of the array and performs the minimum number of swaps necessary to reverse it. It has a time complexity of O(n/2), which simplifies to O(n), and it operates in-place, giving it a space complexity of O(1).