Longest Continuous Subarray With Absolute Diff
Medium · Stack & Strings · Array · Queue · Sliding Window · Monotonic Queue · Heap (Priority Queue)
Problem
You are given an integer array nums and an integer limit.
Return the length of the longest non-empty contiguous subarray in which the absolute difference between any two values is at most limit. Put another way, the subarray’s maximum minus its minimum must be <= limit.
Examples
Input: nums = [3,6,5,9,4,4], limit = 3 Output: 3
[3,6,5] has spread 6 - 3 = 3. [6,5,9] fails because 9 - 5 = 4, and no window of 4 fits.
Input: nums = [7,7,7,1], limit = 0 Output: 3
With limit 0 every value must be equal; the first three 7s are the longest such run.
Input: nums = [10,1,2,3,20], limit = 5 Output: 3
[1,2,3] has spread 2; any window touching 10 or 20 is wider than 5.
Constraints
- 1 <= len(nums) <= 10^5
- 1 <= nums[i] <= 10^9
- 0 <= limit <= 10^9
Approaches
- Extend from every start — time O(n²), space O(1)
Follow-up
What if you had to count every subarray with spread at most limit, not just find the longest? The same window gives it: at each right end, all right - left + 1 starts fit. See the first use case.
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