I'm suppose to find if there is duplicates in a list and return true or false using recursion only (no loops). So if ArrayList of char is used, [a,b,c,d,e] should return false. [a,a,b,c,d] or [a,b,b,c,c,d] should return true. I've tried and tested different ways and it worked for some cases but not all. I changed my code around and this is what I have now. (Has problem at the last if statement) Can anyone give me some hints? Thanks. public static <T> boolean duplicate(List<T> list) throws NullPointerException { return duplicateHelper(list, list.get(0)); } public static <T> boolean duplicateHelper(List<T> list, T t){ if (list == null) throw new NullPointerException(); if(list.isEmpty()) return false; if(list.size() > 1){ if(t.equals(list.get(1))) return true; } if(list.size() == 1) return false; if(!duplicateHelper(list.subList(1,list.size()), t)){ return duplicate(list.subList(1,list.size())); } return false; }