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Grokking the Coding Interview Patterns in C#

Solution: Find K Closest Elements

Explore how to efficiently find the k closest elements to a target value in a sorted array. Understand the use of modified binary search to locate the nearest element and apply a two-pointer sliding window for selection. This lesson helps you implement and analyze both naive and optimized solutions, focusing on time and space complexity trade-offs for effective coding interview preparation.

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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:

  • 1≤1 \leq k ≤\leq nums.Length
  • 1≤1 \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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