No, you deal with slices all the time. You just recognize the idiom. You can restructure it if you don't need to preserve order: a[i] = a[len(a)-1] a

No, you deal with slices all the time. You just recognize the idiom. You can restructure it if you don't need to preserve order: a[i] = a[len(a)-1] a = a[:len(a)-1] In general* Go does not hide complexity from you. It's a blessing and a curse. *: because the Internet is a nitpicky place.