Code RoomMulti-key sort
MediumPrep Room Coding #5137

Multi-key sort

CodingAlgorithms & data structuresMid–Senior~8 min

Given `staff` with columns `name`, `team`, `salary`, `hired` and `manager`, return every row sorted by `team` ascending, then `salary` descending, then `name` ascending. Return `name`, `team` and `salary`.

Implement
by_team_then_pay(staff: dataframe) → dataframe
Examples
in[{"__df__":[{"name":"Ada","team":"eng","hired":"2021-03-01","salary":120,"manager":"Grace"},{"name":"Grace","team":"eng","hired":"2019-06-15","salary":150,"manager":null},{"name":"Linus","team":"eng","hired":"2022-01-10","salary":95,"manager":"Grace"},{"name":"Mel","team":"sales","hired":"2020-11-05","salary":80,"manager":"Kay"},{"name":"Kay","team":"sales","hired":"2018-02-20","salary":110,"manager":null},{"name":"Ivan","team":"sales","hired":"2023-07-01","salary":80,"manager":"Kay"},{"name":"Jean","team":"design","hired":"2021-09-30","salary":105,"manager":null},{"name":"Nia","team":"design","hired":"2022-05-04","salary":140,"manager":"Jean"},{"name":"Omar","team":"sales","hired":"2021-01-08","salary":125,"manager":"Kay"}]}]out[{"name":"Nia","team":"design","salary":140},{"name":"Jean","team":"design","salary":105},{"name":"Grace","team":"eng","salary":150},{"name":"Ada","team":"eng","salary":120},{"name":"Linus","team":"eng","salary":95},{"name":"Omar","team":"sales","salary":125},{"name":"Kay","team":"sales","salary":110},{"name":"Ivan","team":"sales","salary":80},{"name":"Mel","team":"sales","salary":80}]
What a strong answer looks like

State your approach and its time/space complexity out loud before you optimize. Handle the edge cases (empty input, duplicates, overflow), and say why you chose this over the brute force. Green tests are the floor, not the grade.

0:00 of about 8 min
InputExpectedGot
[{"__df__":[{"name":"Ada","team":"eng","hired":"2021-03-01","salary":120,"manager":"Grace"},{"name":"Grace","team":"eng","hired":"2019-06-15","salary":150,"manager":null},{"name":"Linus","team":"eng","hired":"2022-01-10","salary":95,"manager":"Grace"},{"name":"Mel","team":"sales","hired":"2020-11-05","salary":80,"manager":"Kay"},{"name":"Kay","team":"sales","hired":"2018-02-20","salary":110,"manager":null},{"name":"Ivan","team":"sales","hired":"2023-07-01","salary":80,"manager":"Kay"},{"name":"Jean","team":"design","hired":"2021-09-30","salary":105,"manager":null},{"name":"Nia","team":"design","hired":"2022-05-04","salary":140,"manager":"Jean"},{"name":"Omar","team":"sales","hired":"2021-01-08","salary":125,"manager":"Kay"}]}][{"name":"Nia","team":"design","salary":140},{"name":"Jean","team":"design","salary":105},{"name":"Grace","team":"eng","salary":150},{"name":"Ada","team":"eng","salary":120},{"name":"Linus","team":"eng","salary":95},{"name":"Omar","team":"sales","salary":125},{"name":"Kay","team":"sales","salary":110},{"name":"Ivan","team":"sales","salary":80},{"name":"Mel","team":"sales","salary":80}]not run yetsample