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Solution: Find K Closest Elements

Explore how to efficiently find k closest elements to a target value within a sorted array. This lesson guides you through using modified binary search combined with a sliding window technique to minimize comparisons and improve performance. Learn to handle edge cases and optimize time and space complexity for coding interview challenges.

Statement

You are given a sorted array of integers, nums, and two integers, target and k. Your task is to return k number of integers that are close to the target value, target. The integers in the output array should be in a sorted order.

An integer, nums[i], is considered to be closer to target, as compared to nums[j] when |nums[i] - target| << |nums[j] - target|. However, when |nums[i] - target| == |nums[j] - target|, the smaller of the two values is selected.

Constraints:

  • 11 \leq k \leq nums.length
  • 11 \leq nums.length 103\leq 10^3
  • nums is sorted in ascending order.
  • 104-10^4 \leq nums[i], target 104\leq 10^4
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