Neither Minimum nor Maximum - Practice Coding Problems

Neither Minimum nor Maximum - Problem

Array Sorting Easy

Given an integer array nums containing distinct positive integers, find and return any number from the array that is neither the minimum nor the maximum value in the array, or -1 if there is no such number.

Return the selected integer.

Input & Output

Example 1 — Basic Case

$ Input: nums = [3,2,1,4]

› Output: 2

💡 Note: Array has min=1, max=4. Elements 2 and 3 are neither min nor max, so we can return either one. Return 2.

Example 2 — Small Array

$ Input: nums = [1,2]

› Output: -1

💡 Note: Array has only 2 elements: min=1 and max=2. No element exists that is neither min nor max.

Example 3 — Larger Array

$ Input: nums = [2,1,3]

› Output: 2

💡 Note: Array has min=1, max=3. Element 2 is neither the minimum nor maximum, so return 2.

Constraints

1 ≤ nums.length ≤ 100
1 ≤ nums[i] ≤ 100
All the numbers of nums are unique.

Visualization

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Understanding the Visualization

Input

Array with distinct elements [3,2,1,4]

Identify Extremes

Find minimum (1) and maximum (4) values

Pick Middle

Return any element that's neither min nor max (2 or 3)

Key Takeaway

🎯 Key Insight: Any element that's not an extreme value is a valid answer

Asked in

G Google 15 a Amazon 12 M Microsoft 8

The key insight is that we need to find any element that's not an extreme value. Best approach is the two-pass solution: first find min/max values, then find any element that's neither. Time: O(n), Space: O(1)

Common Approaches

Approach	Time	Space	Notes
✓ Sort and Pick Middle	O(n log n)	O(1)	Sort the array and return the middle element (guaranteed to be neither min nor max)
Brute Force - Find Min/Max by Comparison	O(n³)	O(1)	Compare each element with all others to identify min/max, then return any remaining element
Two-Pass Solution	O(n)	O(1)	First pass finds min and max values, second pass finds any element that's neither

Sort and Pick Middle — Algorithm Steps

Sort the array in ascending order
Check if array has more than 2 elements
Return the second element (index 1) as it's guaranteed to be neither min nor max

Visualization

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Step-by-Step Walkthrough

Original Array

Start with unsorted array [3,1,4,2]

Sort Array

Sort in ascending order: [1,2,3,4]

Pick Middle

Return second element (index 1) which is guaranteed to be neither min nor max

Code -

solution.c — C

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

int compare(const void *a, const void *b) {
    return (*(int*)a - *(int*)b);
}

int solution(int* nums, int n) {
    if (n <= 2) return -1;
    
    // Sort the array
    qsort(nums, n, sizeof(int), compare);
    
    // Return any middle element (not first or last)
    return nums[1];
}

int main() {
    char line[1000];
    fgets(line, sizeof(line), stdin);
    
    // Parse JSON array manually
    int nums[100];
    int n = 0;
    char* token = strtok(line + 1, ",]");
    while (token != NULL) {
        nums[n++] = atoi(token);
        token = strtok(NULL, ",]");
    }
    
    int result = solution(nums, n);
    printf("%d\n", result);
    
    return 0;
}

Time & Space Complexity

Time Complexity

⏱️

O(n log n)

Sorting the array dominates the time complexity

⚡ Linearithmic

Space Complexity

O(1)

Sorting in-place, no extra arrays needed

✓ Linear Space

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Medium Frequency

~8 min Avg. Time

892 Likes

Ln 1, Col 1

Smart Actions

💡 Explanation

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Input & Output

Constraints

Visualization

Related Problems

Common Approaches

Sort and Pick Middle — Algorithm Steps

Visualization

Code -

Time & Space Complexity

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