Monotonic Queue vs Other Techniques

Monotonic queue: window min/max with fixed window size. $O(n)$ time. Segment tree with lazy propagation: arbitrary range queries, supports updates. $O(n \log n)$ time. Sparse table: static range min/max queries. $O(n \log n)$ preprocessing, $O(1)$ query.

When you have a sliding window (fixed size, sequential iteration), monotonic queue is the cleanest and fastest. Use the others for more general range query problems.