**Why Partitioning:** Separates elements by predicate—foundation for quicksort on linked lists, routing (high/low priority), and stream processing (route by key).
**Two-Pointer Approach:** Maintain two lists: less_than and ge_than. Single pass, O(n), O(1) extra (reuse nodes). Stable partition preserves relative order within each group.
**Scalability:** In-memory only—linked lists aren't used at big-data scale....
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