Loop design or circular paths
There is a pattern that wasn't very common in older games, but it's more common in modern titles. It's about backtracking. If you played Doom or Duke 3D, the levels always begin in one place and end in another. Except for levels where the exit is clearly right at the beginning, albeit locked. I can't state that it's amandatory to always design levels in loops though. To backtrack may have storyline purposes. For example: there may be an scripted event which blocks the player's path, forcing him or her to go in a different direction. Maybe the player triggers some event and there is a battle to escape the place.
Wolfenstein 2009 has the pattern of loop design with a slight variation. When the player reaches the end of the mission they find some transportation that returns the player to the beginning point, a city which serves as a hub to the missions and levels that the player has to go to complete the game.
Reference: Loops (level design) - Valve Developer Community (valvesoftware.com)
Rage
Ghost Hideout. The player travels through a canyon and reaches a point where the entrance is to the right and the exit is a garage door to the left.
The Shrouded Bunker. The entrance and exit are next to each other, some few meters away from each other.
In Rage every mission follows the pattern above. The exit is always near the entrance. Note that Rage does not have an open world. Every level has a loading screen and a door separating the outside from the inside. The level where each mission takes place does not have to fit into the outside world's space.
Control
Unknown Caller. The first boss encounter in the game. See how the mission begins at the Central Executive. From there the player go to the Cafeteria. After the player finds the Hotline and the mission ends, the player is back to the Director's Office. The corridor back to the Central Executive is right next to the Director's Office. Every mission in this game follows this exact same pattern. In spite of following a loop design, I should mention that there are other factors in play that make the level design in this game pretty confusing.
Bioshock Infinite
Image credits: Lacry
An example of a game that didn't follow this pattern is Bioshock Infinite. The player goes in a new area through a door and after the objective is completed, they have to backtrack all the way to the same door while nothing new is found or activated. Maybe some enemies and scripted dialogues.
Hall of Heroes. When the player opens the door and goes in they are trapped inside. The door can only be opened again after the player completes the mission, which is to retrieve the electric power vigor. The level is a linear sequence of rooms and corridors and after the player acquires the new skill, they have to walk all their way back to the beginning and use the newly acquired skill to open the door. On the way back some enemies show up, but nothing new is found.
Good Time Club. Again, another linear level. In this part of the game the player's task is to rescue Chen Lin, an important character in the game's plot. In here there is a caveat though. When the player goes back to the beginning of the level, before that there is a scripted event. The player is transported to a parallel world, dimension, where the storyline follows a different timeline with different events. The place itself is pretty much the same, except that by being in a different world, dimension, there are differences regarding items and objects placement. The lighting and textures are also a bit different on some areas. On its way back the player encounters some characters in pain in a strange situation, they are dead in one dimension but at the same time alive into another, which is one of the most confusing ideas that this game was based on.
Circular and linear at the same time
A level can be both linear and circular at the same time. The whole level can begin at A and end at B like the first image in this page. While at the same time there are objectives to be completed and each one follows a linear path inside the level. An example where this happens is the level "Research Facility" in Dark Forces. The mission ends in a location close to the beginning. But inside the research facility there is backtracking. The player completes one objetive and has to go back all the way to the previous point.
An example of a linear level with objectives that lead back to the starting point (starting point of that area, not of the level itself) is "Kejim Outpost" in Jedi Outcast. The level begins at A and end somewhere else, far away from the beginning of the mission. During the mission the player has to complete objectives to unlock doors to progress and once the player finishes exploring the area, they are brought back to where they previosuly came from.
I can't say that one is better than the other though. In the case of Dark Forces the levels are confusing and this is mostly caused by the excessive usage of turns to the left and to the right without proving windows to give the player a sense of direction. Backtracking by itself is not an issue if the level design does a good job in guiding the player through it.