1984. Minimum Difference Between Highest and Lowest of K Scores

Description

You are given a 0-indexed integer array nums, where nums[i] represents the score of the ith student. You are also given an integer k.

Pick the scores of any k students from the array so that the difference between the highest and the lowest of the k scores is minimized.

Return the minimum possible difference.

 

Example 1:

Input: nums = [90], k = 1
Output: 0
Explanation: There is one way to pick score(s) of one student:
- [90]. The difference between the highest and lowest score is 90 - 90 = 0.
The minimum possible difference is 0.

Example 2:

Input: nums = [9,4,1,7], k = 2
Output: 2
Explanation: There are six ways to pick score(s) of two students:
- [9,4,1,7]. The difference between the highest and lowest score is 9 - 4 = 5.
- [9,4,1,7]. The difference between the highest and lowest score is 9 - 1 = 8.
- [9,4,1,7]. The difference between the highest and lowest score is 9 - 7 = 2.
- [9,4,1,7]. The difference between the highest and lowest score is 4 - 1 = 3.
- [9,4,1,7]. The difference between the highest and lowest score is 7 - 4 = 3.
- [9,4,1,7]. The difference between the highest and lowest score is 7 - 1 = 6.
The minimum possible difference is 2.

 

Constraints:

  • 1 <= k <= nums.length <= 1000
  • 0 <= nums[i] <= 105

Solutions

Solution 1

Python Code
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class Solution:
    def minimumDifference(self, nums: List[int], k: int) -> int:
        nums.sort()
        return min(nums[i + k - 1] - nums[i] for i in range(len(nums) - k + 1))

Java Code
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class Solution {
    public int minimumDifference(int[] nums, int k) {
        Arrays.sort(nums);
        int ans = 100000;
        for (int i = 0; i < nums.length - k + 1; ++i) {
            ans = Math.min(ans, nums[i + k - 1] - nums[i]);
        }
        return ans;
    }
}

C++ Code
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class Solution {
public:
    int minimumDifference(vector<int>& nums, int k) {
        sort(nums.begin(), nums.end());
        int ans = 1e5;
        for (int i = 0; i < nums.size() - k + 1; ++i)
            ans = min(ans, nums[i + k - 1] - nums[i]);
        return ans;
    }
};

Go Code
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func minimumDifference(nums []int, k int) int {
	sort.Ints(nums)
	ans := 100000
	for i := 0; i < len(nums)-k+1; i++ {
		ans = min(ans, nums[i+k-1]-nums[i])
	}
	return ans
}

TypeScript Code
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function minimumDifference(nums: number[], k: number): number {
    nums.sort((a, b) => a - b);
    const n = nums.length;
    let ans = nums[n - 1] - nums[0];
    for (let i = 0; i + k - 1 < n; i++) {
        ans = Math.min(nums[i + k - 1] - nums[i], ans);
    }
    return ans;
}

Rust Code
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impl Solution {
    pub fn minimum_difference(mut nums: Vec<i32>, k: i32) -> i32 {
        nums.sort();
        let k = k as usize;
        let mut res = i32::MAX;
        for i in 0..=nums.len() - k {
            res = res.min(nums[i + k - 1] - nums[i]);
        }
        res
    }
}

PHP Code
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class Solution {
    /**
     * @param Integer[] $nums
     * @param Integer $k
     * @return Integer
     */
    function minimumDifference($nums, $k) {
        sort($nums);
        $rs = 10 ** 5;
        for ($i = 0; $i < count($nums) - $k + 1; $i++) {
            $rs = min($rs, $nums[$i + $k - 1] - $nums[$i]);
        }
        return $rs;
    }
}