Programming Praxis

Today’s exercise is a fun task for a lazy summer Friday:

Given a circular array X of positive integers and a starting index k of the array, delete the element at k and jump X[k] steps in the circular array. Repeat until only a single element remains. Find the last remaining element.

For example, with array 6 2 3 1 4 7 5 and k = 3, the last man standing is 3, computed as shown below, with the item to be deleted at each step marked with brackets and the list rotated at each step to bring the new head of the list to the front:

6 2 3 [1] 4 7 5
4 [7] 5 6 2 3
5 6 [2] 3 4
3 4 [5] 6
6 3 [4]
[6] 3
3

Your task is to write a program to find the last remaining element. When you are finished, you are welcome to read or run a suggested solution, or to post your own solution or discuss the exercise in the comments below.

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