Busiest Time Window

Sliding Window Algorithms Logs

You are given a list of log events, where each event is represented by a timestamp string in the format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS. The list of events might not be in chronological order. Your task is to write a function that, given the list of timestamps and an integer windowSize (representing a time interval in seconds), finds the starting timestamp of the time window during which the maximum number of events occurred.

Requirements:

  • Parse the timestamps into a date/time data structure appropriate for your chosen programming language.
  • The function should consider any continuous time window of windowSize seconds. Events that occur exactly at the boundary should be considered within the window.
  • If there are multiple windows with the same maximum number of events, return the earliest starting timestamp among them.
  • The function should return a pair (or equivalent structure) containing the starting timestamp of the window (formatted as in the input) and the number of events in that window.

Example (for illustration only):

Suppose you have the following events:

2024-12-19 10:00:00
2024-12-19 10:00:30
2024-12-19 10:01:00
2024-12-19 10:02:00

With a windowSize of 60 seconds, one valid window would start at 2024-12-19 10:00:00 and include events up to (and including) 2024-12-19 10:01:00, giving a count of 3 events.

Implement your solution in your preferred programming language, ensuring that it efficiently handles large lists of timestamps.