Formatted question description: https://leetcode.ca/all/1984.html

# 1984. Minimum Difference Between Highest and Lowest of K Scores

Easy

## Description

You are given a 0-indexed integer array nums, where nums[i] represents the score of the i-th student. You are also given an integer k.

Pick the scores of any k students from the array so that the difference between the highest and the lowest of the k scores is minimized.

Return the minimum possible difference.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [90], k = 1

Output: 0

Explanation: There is one way to pick score(s) of one student:

• [90]. The difference between the highest and lowest score is 90 - 90 = 0. The minimum possible difference is 0.

Example 2:

Input: nums = [9,4,1,7], k = 2

*Output8: 2

Explanation: There are six ways to pick score(s) of two students:

• [9,4,1,7]. The difference between the highest and lowest score is 9 - 4 = 5.
• [9,4,1,7]. The difference between the highest and lowest score is 9 - 1 = 8.
• [9,4,1,7]. The difference between the highest and lowest score is 9 - 7 = 2.
• [9,4,1,7]. The difference between the highest and lowest score is 4 - 1 = 3.
• [9,4,1,7]. The difference between the highest and lowest score is 7 - 4 = 3.
• [9,4,1,7]. The difference between the highest and lowest score is 7 - 1 = 6.

The minimum possible difference is 2.

Constraints:

• 1 <= k <= nums.length <= 1000
• 0 <= nums[i] <= 10^5

## Solution

Sort the array nums and for each pair of elements with indices differ by k - 1, calculate the differences of the pair of elements. Rethrn the minimum difference.

class Solution {
public int minimumDifference(int[] nums, int k) {
int minDifference = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
Arrays.sort(nums);
int length = nums.length;
for (int i = k - 1; i < length; i++) {
int difference = nums[i] - nums[i - k + 1];
minDifference = Math.min(minDifference, difference);
}
return minDifference;
}
}