2567. Minimum Score by Changing Two Elements

Problem Link

Description

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You are given an integer array nums.

• The low score of nums is the minimum absolute difference between any two integers.
• The high score of nums is the maximum absolute difference between any two integers.
• The score of nums is the sum of the high and low scores.

Return the minimum score after changing two elements of nums.

 

Example 1:

Input: nums = [1,4,7,8,5]

Output: 3

Explanation:

• Change nums[0] and nums[1] to be 6 so that nums becomes [6,6,7,8,5].
• The low score is the minimum absolute difference: |6 - 6| = 0.
• The high score is the maximum absolute difference: |8 - 5| = 3.
• The sum of high and low score is 3.

Example 2:

Input: nums = [1,4,3]

Output: 0

Explanation:

• Change nums[1] and nums[2] to 1 so that nums becomes [1,1,1].
• The sum of maximum absolute difference and minimum absolute difference is 0.

 

Constraints:

• 3 <= nums.length <= 105
• 1 <= nums[i] <= 109

Solution

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Python3

class Solution:
    def minimizeSum(self, nums: List[int]) -> int:
        nums.sort()
        A = nums[-1] - nums[2]
        B = nums[-3] - nums[0]
        C = nums[-2] - nums[1]
        
        return min(A, B, C)