CodingMediumcod-g323

Subject Kth elementLevel Mid–Senior~28 minCommon in Algorithms & data structures interviewsIndustries Software development

Question

Return the k-th LARGEST element in an unsorted integer array (1-indexed, so k=1 is the maximum). Implement average O(n) selection (e.g. quickselect), not a full sort. The k-th largest is the value at sorted position; duplicates count by value position. Constraints: 1 <= k <= len(nums) <= 10^5, -10^9 <= nums[i] <= 10^9.

Implement

kth_largest(nums: list[int], k: int) → int

Examples

in[[3,2,1,5,6,4],2]out5

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.

Learn the concepts

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.