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Check if two numbers are bit rotations of each other or not

Last Updated : 23 Jul, 2025

Given two positive integers x and y (0 < x, y < 2^32), check if one integer is obtained by rotating bits of the other. 

Bit Rotation: A rotation (or circular shift) is an operation similar to a shift except that the bits that fall off at one end are put back to the other end.

Examples: 

Input : a = 8, b = 1
Output : yes
Explanation : Representation of a = 8 : 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 1000 ,Representation of b = 1 : 0000 0000 0000, 0000 0000 0000 0000 0001. If we rotate a by 3 units right we get b, hence answer is yes.

Input : a = 122, b = 2147483678
Output : yes
Explanation :Representation of a = 122        : 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0111 1010,Representation of b = 2147483678 : 1000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0001 1110, If we rotate a by 2 units right we get b, hence answer is yes.

Approach:

  • Since total bits in which x or y can be represented is 32 since x, y > 0 and x, y < 2^32. 
  • So we need to find all 32 possible rotations of x and compare them with y till x and y are not equal. 
  • To do this we use a temporary variable x64 with 64 bits, which is result of the concatenation of x to x ie. x64 has the first 32 bits the same as bits of x and the last 32 bits are also the same as bits of x64.
  • Then we keep on shifting x64 by 1 on the right side and compare the rightmost 32 bits of x64 with y. 
  • In this way, we'll be able to get all the possible bits combinations due to rotation.

Here is implementation of above algorithm.
 


Output
yes

Time Complexity: O(logn)
Auxiliary Space: O(1)


 

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