Minimum Absolute Difference
A easy-tier problem at 71% community acceptance, tagged with Array, Sorting. Reported in interviews at Audible and 6 others.
Minimum Absolute Difference is an easy array problem that hits your screen more often than you'd expect. It's been asked by Audible, Paycom, Agoda, J.P. Morgan, IBM, PayPal, and Oracle. The trick is stupidly simple once you see it, but candidates blank on it live because they overthink the problem statement. You're looking for the smallest gap between any two elements. Most people miss that sorting cuts the work in half. If this lands in your assessment and you freeze, StealthCoder solves it invisible to the proctor.
Companies that ask "Minimum Absolute Difference"
Minimum Absolute Difference is the kind of problem that decides whether you pass. StealthCoder reads the problem on screen and surfaces a working solution in under 2 seconds. Invisible to screen share. The proctor sees nothing. Built because the OA filter rejects engineers who'd pass the on-site. That's a broken filter. This is the workaround.
Get StealthCoderSort the array first. The minimum absolute difference must be between adjacent elements in the sorted array. If you're checking every pair without sorting, you're doing O(n squared) work for no reason. After sorting, one pass through adjacent pairs gives you the answer in O(n log n). The common mistake is not realizing that the smallest gap can't exist between two elements that aren't neighbors once sorted. That's the entire problem. It's an easy rating and acceptance is above 70 percent because the solution is one sort plus one loop. But candidates still trip up on it live because they don't immediately see sorting as the unlock. This is exactly where StealthCoder acts as a hedge if the pattern doesn't click in the moment.
Pattern tags
You know the problem.
Make sure you actually pass it.
Minimum Absolute Difference recycles across companies for a reason. It's easy-tier, and most candidates blank under the timer. StealthCoder is the hedge: an AI overlay invisible during screen share. It reads the problem and surfaces a working solution in under 2 seconds. Built because the OA filter rejects engineers who'd pass the on-site. That's a broken filter. This is the workaround. Works on HackerRank, CodeSignal, CoderPad, and Karat.
Minimum Absolute Difference interview FAQ
Is this problem actually easy or do they make it sound easier than it is?+
It's genuinely easy. The algorithm is sort plus one linear pass. The acceptance rate is over 70 percent. What trips up live candidates is not recognizing that adjacent sorted pairs hold the answer, not pattern-matching to the correct approach. Once you code the sort, the rest is mechanical.
Do companies like J.P. Morgan and PayPal really ask this or is it noise?+
Yes. It appears in hiring reports from both. It's more likely to show up early in the interview loop because it's fast to code and fast to evaluate. It tests whether you recognize sorting as a solution, not raw coding skill.
What's the trick I'm missing if I'm not seeing the sort immediately?+
You're probably thinking pair-by-pair without organization. Sorting is the key unlock. Once sorted, the smallest gap is always between neighbors. Anything else is wasted comparison. If you didn't see that in practice, that's fine. That's what the live OA is for. And that's why StealthCoder exists.
How does this relate to the Sorting topic?+
This problem is Sorting in its purest form. You're not sorting to output a sorted array. You're sorting because it restructures the problem so the solution becomes trivial. It's a masterclass in recognizing when to sort as a preprocessing step.
Can I solve this without sorting?+
Technically yes, but it's slower. A hash-set approach or brute force works for small inputs, but you'll hit O(n squared) time. The sorted approach is O(n log n) and is what interviewers expect. It's also the pattern you'll see across array problems.
Want the actual problem statement? View "Minimum Absolute Difference" on LeetCode →