Here's an iterative stack-based solution

There are lots of them, just think about the fact the power can't be very large.

I had the same time out problem. Did you find a solution?

Is there any elegant solution for this problem that doesn't time out? I only saw solutions with hardcoded limits and even with the hardcoded results. Thanks!

Javascript, both -3 and -5 are 1 unit away of -4

[ -7, 7, -1, -3, -9, -5, 1 ] -4
Expected: -5, instead got: -3

You may assume that each input would have exactly one solution.

That isn't true.

Is it possible to solve this problem without libraries or brute force?

In the samples I believe there's an error. It says:

get_textliterals("'this' is sample 'too'") -> [(0, 6), (15, 20)]

But it should be:

get_textliterals("'this' is sample 'too'") -> [(0, 6), (17, 22)]

That rectangle is 14x20, if the first square is 14x14, the second square cannot have a side bigger than 6