Minimize Maximum Pair Sum in Array

The pair sum of a pair (a,b) is equal to a + b. The maximum pair sum is the largest pair sum in a list of pairs.

• For example, if we have pairs (1,5), (2,3), and (4,4), the maximum pair sum would be max(1+5, 2+3, 4+4) = max(6, 5, 8) = 8.

Given an array nums of even length n, pair up the elements of nums into n / 2 pairs such that:

• Each element of nums is in exactly one pair, and
• The maximum pair sum is minimized.

Return the minimized maximum pair sum after optimally pairing up the elements.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [3,5,2,3]
Output: 7
Explanation: The elements can be paired up into pairs (3,3) and (5,2).
The maximum pair sum is max(3+3, 5+2) = max(6, 7) = 7.

Example 2:

Input: nums = [3,5,4,2,4,6]
Output: 8
Explanation: The elements can be paired up into pairs (3,5), (4,4), and (6,2).
The maximum pair sum is max(3+5, 4+4, 6+2) = max(8, 8, 8) = 8.

Constraints:

• n == nums.length
• 2 <= n <= 105
• n is even.
• 1 <= nums[i] <= 105

SOLUTION:

import heapq

class Solution:
    def minPairSum(self, nums: List[int]) -> int:
        minheap = []
        maxheap = []
        for num in nums:
            heapq.heappush(minheap, num)
            heapq.heappush(maxheap, -num)
        n = len(nums)
        smallest = heapq.nlargest(n // 2, minheap)
        biggest = heapq.nlargest(n // 2, maxheap)
        return max(smallest[i] - biggest[i] for i in range(n // 2))