Tejav
#3423

Maximum Difference Between Adjacent Elements in a Circular Array

Easy
ArrayArrayCircular Array
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Approaches

Brute ForceOptimal
Complexity Comparison
Brute ForceOptimal Solution★
Time
O(n)
O(n)
Space
O(1)
O(1)
💡

Intuition

Time O(n)Space O(1)

The optimal solution is essentially the same as the brute force approach in terms of logic but emphasizes efficiency in terms of clarity and understanding. We still only need to check adjacent pairs, including the wrap-around.

⚙️

Algorithm

4 steps
  1. 1Step 1: Initialize a variable to keep track of the maximum difference.
  2. 2Step 2: Loop through the array and calculate the absolute difference between each adjacent pair.
  3. 3Step 3: Check the difference between the last and first elements.
  4. 4Step 4: Return the maximum difference found.
solution.py7 lines
1def maxAbsDiff(nums):
2    max_diff = 0
3    n = len(nums)
4    for i in range(n):
5        diff = abs(nums[i] - nums[(i + 1) % n])
6        max_diff = max(max_diff, diff)
7    return max_diff
ℹ

Complexity note: The optimal solution retains the same complexity as the brute force approach, O(n) time and O(1) space, as we still only loop through the array once.

  • 1The circular nature of the array requires checking the first and last elements as adjacent.
  • 2The absolute difference is crucial for determining the maximum difference.

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