215. Kth Largest Element in an Array

• categories: Code, Interview Question, leetcode, Medium
• source: https://leetcode.com/problems/kth-largest-element-in-an-array
• topics: Heap

Description

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?

Idea

• Heap

Code

class Solution:
    def findKthLargest(self, nums: List[int], k: int) -> int:
        heap = nums[:k]
        heapq.heapify(heap)
        
        for num in nums[k:]:
            if num > heap[0]:
                heapq.heappop(heap)
                heapq.heappush(heap, num)
        
        return heap[0]