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Back to ChallengesKth Largest Element in an ArrayMedium 30 min

Kth Largest Element in an Array

Given an integer array nums and an integer k, return the kth largest element in the array.

Note that it is the kth largest element in the sorted order, not the kth distinct element.

Can you solve it without sorting?

Examples

Input: nums = [3,2,1,5,6,4], k = 2
Output: 5
The sorted array is [1,2,3,4,5,6]. The 2nd largest element is 5.
Input: nums = [3,2,3,1,2,4,5,5,6], k = 4
Output: 4
The sorted array is [1,2,2,3,3,4,5,5,6]. The 4th largest element is 4.

Constraints

  • • 1 <= k <= nums.length <= 10^5
  • • -10^4 <= nums[i] <= 10^4

Complexity Analysis

Time
O(N) on average using Quickselect. Worst case is O(N^2).
Space
O(log N) for the recursion stack.

Test Cases

#1 Standard array
Input: nums = [3,2,1,5,6,4], k = 2
Expected: 5
#2 Array with duplicates
Input: nums = [3,2,3,1,2,4,5,5,6], k = 4
Expected: 4
JavaScript
Output
Click "Run Code" to see output here...