Code Room
CodingMediumcod-g1282
Subject HeapsLevel Entry–Mid~15 minCommon in Distributed systems · Algorithms & data structures interviewsIndustries Software development

Question

A monitoring system tails k event feeds from different servers. Each feed is a list of event timestamps in ascending order. To render a preview pane you need only the m earliest timestamps across all feeds combined, in ascending order — without merging everything when the feeds are long. Return those timestamps (fewer than m if the feeds run out). Equal timestamps may appear in different feeds and all are kept. Example: feeds = [[2, 9], [1, 5, 7]], m = 3 gives [1, 2, 5].

Implement
earliest_events(feeds: list[list[int]], m: int) → list[int]
Examples
in[[[2,9],[1,5,7]],3]out[1,2,5]
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.

Vibe coding: describe the solution in plain language (or narrate it) and the coach grades your approach. Generating runnable code from your description is coming next.

Run or narrate your approach, then ask the coach.