Closest Random Points (Also for Core/Database Engineering)

Problem Overview

• Find the squared shortest distance between any pair of 2D points.
• Input: arrays x[n] and y[n] of integer coordinates; Output: a long with the minimum squared distance.
• Constraints: n ≥ 2, with n ≤ 1000 or n = 100000; coordinates are uniformly random in [0, 10^9 − 1].
• Real-world context: random spatial data and analytics; common geometry problem across systems.
• Asked in Snowflake interviews; a coding interview interview question.