我会用另一种方法来回答这个问题，询问面试官关于他试图解决的更大问题的更多细节。根据问题和围绕它的需求，显而易见的基于集的解决方案可能是正确的，而生成一个列表然后从中挑选的方法可能不是。

For example, it might be that the interviewer is going to dispatch n messages and needs to know the k that didn't result in a reply and needs to know it in as little wall clock time as possible after the n-kth reply arrives. Let's also say that the message channel's nature is such that even running at full bore, there's enough time to do some processing between messages without having any impact on how long it takes to produce the end result after the last reply arrives. That time can be put to use inserting some identifying facet of each sent message into a set and deleting it as each corresponding reply arrives. Once the last reply has arrived, the only thing to be done is to remove its identifier from the set, which in typical implementations takes O(log k+1). After that, the set contains the list of k missing elements and there's no additional processing to be done.

这当然不是批处理预先生成的数字袋的最快方法，因为整个过程运行O((log 1 + log 2 +…)+ log n) + (log n + log n-1 +…+ log k))。但它确实适用于任何k值(即使它事先不知道)，在上面的例子中，它的应用方式使最关键的区间最小化。

假设一个ArrayList对象(myList)被这些数字填充，其中x和y两个数字缺失。所以可能的解决方案是:

int k = 1;
        while (k < 100) {
            if (!myList.contains(k)) {
                System.out.println("Missing No:" + k);
            }
            k++;
        }

这里有一个解决方案，使用k位额外的存储空间，没有任何聪明的技巧，只是简单。执行时间O (n)，额外空间O (k)。只是为了证明这个问题可以解决，而不需要先阅读解决方案或成为天才:

void puzzle (int* data, int n, bool* extra, int k)
{
    // data contains n distinct numbers from 1 to n + k, extra provides
    // space for k extra bits. 

    // Rearrange the array so there are (even) even numbers at the start
    // and (odd) odd numbers at the end.
    int even = 0, odd = 0;
    while (even + odd < n)
    {
        if (data [even] % 2 == 0) ++even;
        else if (data [n - 1 - odd] % 2 == 1) ++odd;
        else { int tmp = data [even]; data [even] = data [n - 1 - odd]; 
               data [n - 1 - odd] = tmp; ++even; ++odd; }
    }

    // Erase the lowest bits of all numbers and set the extra bits to 0.
    for (int i = even; i < n; ++i) data [i] -= 1;
    for (int i = 0; i < k; ++i) extra [i] = false;

    // Set a bit for every number that is present
    for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i)
    {
        int tmp = data [i];
        tmp -= (tmp % 2);
        if (i >= even) ++tmp;
        if (tmp <= n) data [tmp - 1] += 1; else extra [tmp - n - 1] = true;
    }

    // Print out the missing ones
    for (int i = 1; i <= n; ++i)
        if (data [i - 1] % 2 == 0) printf ("Number %d is missing\n", i);
    for (int i = n + 1; i <= n + k; ++i)
        if (! extra [i - n - 1]) printf ("Number %d is missing\n", i);

    // Restore the lowest bits again.
    for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
        if (i < even) { if (data [i] % 2 != 0) data [i] -= 1; }
        else { if (data [i] % 2 == 0) data [i] += 1; }
    }
}

您可以使用二分搜索来查找缺失(或连续)数字的间隔。运行时间应该是(num间隔)* log(平均间隔长度)* n。如果间隔不多，则很有用。

我们可以用O(log n)来做Q1和Q2。

假设我们的存储芯片由n个试管阵列组成。试管中的数字x用x毫升化学液体表示。

假设我们的处理器是一束激光。当我们点燃激光时，它垂直穿过所有的管子。每次它通过化学液体，光度就降低1。在某毫升处通过光是O(1)的运算。

现在如果我们在试管的中间点上激光就会得到光度的输出

等于预先计算的值(当没有数字缺失时计算)，则缺失的数字大于n/2。 如果我们的输出更小，那么至少有一个小于n/2的数字缺失。我们也可以检查光度是否降低了1或2。如果它减少1，那么一个缺失数小于n/2，另一个大于n/2。如果它减2，那么两个数都小于n/2。

我们可以一次又一次地重复上述过程，缩小我们的问题域。在每一步中，我们将定义域缩小一半。最后我们可以得到结果。

值得一提的是并行算法(因为它们很有趣)，

sorting by some parallel algorithm, for example, parallel merge can be done in O(log^3 n) time. And then the missing number can be found by binary search in O(log n) time. Theoretically, if we have n processors then each process can check one of the inputs and set some flag that identifies the number(conveniently in an array). And in the next step each process can check each flag and finally output the number that is not flagged. The whole process will take O(1) time. It has additional O(n) space/memory requirement.

请注意，如上所述，上面提供的两个并行算法可能需要额外的空间。

非常好的问题。我会用Qk的集合差。很多编程语言甚至都支持它，比如Ruby:

missing = (1..100).to_a - bag

这可能不是最有效的解决方案，但如果我在这种情况下面临这样的任务(已知边界，低边界)，这是我在现实生活中会使用的解决方案。如果数字集非常大，那么我当然会考虑一个更有效的算法，但在此之前，简单的解决方案对我来说已经足够了。