Longest Continuous Subarray With Absolute Diff Less Than or Equal to Limit

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Solve this the way you would in the interview: out loud, on a timer, with an AI interviewer asking follow-ups while you code. You get a scored report at the end.

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Problem

Given an integer array nums and a non-negative integer limit, find the longest non-empty contiguous subarray in which the absolute difference between **any** two elements is at most limit. Equivalently, max(subarray) - min(subarray) <= limit. Return the length of that subarray. Since limit >= 0, a single element always qualifies, so the answer is at least 1. Aim for O(n) time.

Examples

Input: nums = [8,2,4,7], limit = 4
Output: 2
[2,4] has difference 2 and [4,7] has 3; no window of length 3 stays within 4.
Input: nums = [10,1,2,4,7,2], limit = 5
Output: 4
[2,4,7,2] has max 7 and min 2, a difference of 5.
Input: nums = [4,2,2,2,4,4,2,2], limit = 0
Output: 3
With limit 0 all elements must be equal; the longest run is [2,2,2].

Constraints

  • 1 <= nums.length <= 10^5
  • 1 <= nums[i] <= 10^9
  • 0 <= limit <= 10^9

What the interviewer grades

A correct solution is one of five scores. The report also grades problem understanding (did you clarify inputs and edge cases before coding), problem solving, communication while you work, code quality, and testing. See a sample report, or read up on the pattern in the lessons.

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