Closest Clock Readings

Medium

The list readings holds 24-hour clock readings in the format "HH:MM". Find the smallest difference in minutes between any two readings in the list. Time wraps around: right after "23:59" comes "00:00", so "23:58" and "00:01", for instance, are just 3 minutes apart. The difference between two readings is the shorter of the two ways around the clock. Readings may repeat.

Example 1

readings=["22:15", "07:40", "21:50"] → 25

"21:50" and "22:15" are the closest pair: 25 minutes apart.

Example 2

readings=["23:55", "00:03", "12:00"] → 8

Across midnight, "23:55" and "00:03" are only 8 minutes apart.

Example 3

readings=["09:30", "18:00", "09:30"] → 0

Two identical readings give a difference of 0.

Constraints

2 ≤ len(readings) ≤ 2·10⁴
Each reading is a string "HH:MM" with 00 ≤ HH ≤ 23 and 00 ≤ MM ≤ 59

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Array Math String Sorting

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Input

readings=["22:15", "07:40", "21:50"]

Expected

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