Leetcode 215. Kth Largest Element in an Array

Problem

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.

You must solve it in O(n) time complexity.

Algorithm

Based on the quicksort algorithm.

Code

class Solution:
    def findKthLargest(self, nums: List[int], k: int) -> int:

        def KthLargest(nums, k):
            nlen = len(nums)
            pivot = random.randint(0, nlen-1)
            if pivot:
                nums[pivot], nums[0] = nums[0], nums[pivot]
            M = 0
            for i in range(1, nlen):
                if nums[i] >= nums[0]:
                    M += 1
                    nums[M], nums[i] = nums[i], nums[M]
            nums[M], nums[0] = nums[0], nums[M]
            if k == M:
                return nums[M]
            elif k < M:
                return KthLargest(nums[0:M], k)
            else:
                return KthLargest(nums[M:], k - M)

        return KthLargest(nums, k-1)