Search⌘ K
AI Features

Solution: Find K Closest Elements

Explore how to efficiently identify k closest integers to a target value in a sorted array by using modified binary search and a two-pointer sliding window. Understand both naive and optimized approaches, analyze their time and space complexities, and learn how to implement these techniques to solve this common interview problem.

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
...