Sliding Window Maximum

You are given an array of integers nums, there is a sliding window of size k which is moving from the very left of the array to the very right. You can only see the k numbers in the window. Each time the sliding window moves right by one position.

Return the max sliding window.

Examples

Example 1:

Input: nums = [1,3,-1,-3,5,3,6,7], k = 3
Output: [3,3,5,5,6,7]
Explanation: 
Window position                Max
---------------               -----
[1  3  -1] -3  5  3  6  7       3
 1 [3  -1  -3] 5  3  6  7       3
 1  3 [-1  -3  5] 3  6  7       5
 1  3  -1 [-3  5  3] 6  7       5
 1  3  -1  -3 [5  3  6] 7       6
 1  3  -1  -3  5 [3  6  7]      7

Example 2:
Input: nums = [1], k = 1
Output: [1]
Constraints
1 <= nums.length <= 10^5
-10^4 <= nums[i] <= 10^4
1 <= k <= nums.length

Function Signature

function maxSlidingWindow(nums, k) {
  // Your code here
}

Test Cases

• Base cases: nums = [1], k = 1 → [1]
• Small arrays: nums = [1,2,3], k = 2 → [2,3]
• Medium arrays: nums = [1,3,-1,-3,5,3,6,7], k = 3 → [3,3,5,5,6,7]
• Edge cases: nums = [1,2,3,4,5], k = 5 → [5]
• Large arrays: nums = [1,2,3,...,1000], k = 100 → [100,101,...,1000]

Notes

• The sliding window moves one position to the right each time
• Each window contains exactly k elements
• Need to find the maximum element in each window
• The output array will have length nums.length - k + 1
• Optimal solution uses a deque (double-ended queue) for O(n) time complexity