Kth smallest distance
Given an integer array nums, define the distance of a pair (i, j) as abs(nums[i] - nums[j]). Return the k-th smallest distance among all n*(n-1)/2 pairs (1-indexed). 2 <= len(nums) <= 1e4 so enumerating all pairs is too slow.
Implement
smallest_distance_pair(nums: list[int], k: int) → intExamples
in
[[1,3,1],1]out0What a strong answer looks like
State your approach and its time/space complexity out loud before you optimize. Handle the edge cases (empty input, duplicates, overflow), and say why you chose this over the brute force. Green tests are the floor, not the grade.
0:00 of about 30 min
solution.py
InputExpectedGot
[[1,3,1],1]0not run yetsample