SLIDING WINDOW
TOPIC 1: Fixed Size Sliding Window
(Foundation)
What You Learn
Window of size k
Maintain running sum
Add right, remove left
O(n) optimization from O(n*k)
🟢 Easy
643 – Maximum Average Subarray I
1456 – Maximum Number of Vowels in a Substring of Given Length
1343 – Number of Sub-arrays of Size K and Average Greater than or Equal to Threshold
🟡 Medium
1423 – Maximum Points You Can Obtain from Cards
1052 – Grumpy Bookstore Owner
🔴 Hard
TOPIC 2: Variable Size Sliding Window (Grow
& Shrink)
This is the MOST IMPORTANT sliding window pattern.
What You Learn
Two pointers (left, right)
Expand right
Shrink left when invalid
Longest/shortest valid subarray
🟢 Easy
209 – Minimum Size Subarray Sum
🟡 Medium
3 – Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters ⭐
1004 – Max Consecutive Ones III
424 – Longest Repeating Character Replacement
1493 – Longest Subarray of 1’s After Deleting One Element
904 – Fruit Into Baskets
713 – Subarray Product Less Than K
1208 – Get Equal Substrings Within Budget
1498 – Number of Subsequences That Satisfy the Given Sum Condition
🔴 Hard
⭐
76 – Minimum Window Substring (MUST MASTER)
992 – Subarrays with K Different Integers
1358 – Number of Substrings Containing All Three Characters
TOPIC 3: Sliding Window + Frequency Map
What You Learn
Maintain character count
Use HashMap / array[26]
Track valid condition
Maintain distinct count
🟡 Medium
340 – Longest Substring with At Most K Distinct Characters
438 – Find All Anagrams in a String
567 – Permutation in String
930 – Binary Subarrays With Sum
🔴 Hard
76 – Minimum Window Substring
992 – Subarrays with K Different Integers
TOPIC 4: Sliding Window + Monotonic Deque
Used when problem asks:
Maximum in window
Minimum in window
Shortest subarray with condition
🟡 Medium
239 – Sliding Window Maximum ⭐
🔴 Hard
862 – Shortest Subarray with Sum at Least K
1438 – Longest Continuous Subarray With Absolute Diff ≤ Limit
TOPIC 5: Sliding Window + Prefix Sum
Transformation
Some problems look different but reduce to window logic.
🟡 Medium
1658 – Minimum Operations to Reduce X to Zero
1423 – Maximum Points You Can Obtain from Cards
🟤 TOPIC 6: Circular Sliding Window
🟡 Medium
2134 – Minimum Swaps to Group All 1's Together II
🔴 TOPIC 7: Advanced Window Counting
Technique
Counting number of valid subarrays.
🟡 Medium
1248 – Count Number of Nice Subarrays
930 – Binary Subarrays With Sum
🔴 Hard
992 – Subarrays with K Different Integers
MASTERY LEVEL PROBLEMS (FINAL BOSS
SET)
If a student solves these comfortably → MASTER LEVEL
3
76
239
992
862
1438
424
KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR SLIDING WINDOW
Recognize When to Use It
Look for keywords:
"Substring"
"Subarray"
"Contiguous"
"Longest"
"Shortest"
"At most K"
"At least K"
Think Sliding Window immediately.
2) Fixed vs Variable
If window size is given → Fixed Window
If condition-based → Variable Window
3)Generic Variable Window Template
left = 0
for right in range(n):
include nums[right]
while window invalid:
remove nums[left]
left += 1
update answer
4) Two Main Question Types
1. Longest valid subarray
2. Shortest valid subarray
5) For Counting Problems
Use:
atMost(k) - atMost(k-1)
Very important trick (used in 992, 1248).
6)When Sliding Window FAILS
If:
Negative numbers exist
Sum condition tricky
Try Prefix Sum instead.
AFTER COMPLETING THIS ROADMAP
Student will:
✔ Master two-pointer technique
✔ Solve 95% substring problems
✔ Handle frequency-map windows
✔ Solve deque-based window problems
✔ Crack FAANG sliding window questions
