Leetcode 215. Kth Largest Element in an Array

https://leetcode.com/problems/kth-largest-element-in-an-array/

The plain thought is to sort, and then give the kth element. Run time of this method is 48 ms. This way is simple and easy. Other ways can achieve better performance while much more complex.

Solution:

# T:O(n) S:O(1)
from random import randint

class Solution:
    # @param {integer[]} nums
    # @param {integer} k
    # @return {integer}
    def findKthLargest(self, nums, k):
        left, right = 0, len(nums) - 1
        while left <= right:
            pivot_idx = randint(left, right)
            new_pivot_idx = self.PartitionAroundPivot(left, right, pivot_idx, nums)
            if new_pivot_idx == k - 1:
                return nums[new_pivot_idx]
            elif new_pivot_idx > k - 1:
                right = new_pivot_idx - 1
            else:  # new_pivot_idx < k - 1.
                left = new_pivot_idx + 1
        
    def PartitionAroundPivot(self, left, right, pivot_idx, nums):
        pivot_value = nums[pivot_idx]
        new_pivot_idx = left
        nums[pivot_idx], nums[right] = nums[right], nums[pivot_idx]
        for i in xrange(left, right):
            if nums[i] > pivot_value:
                nums[i], nums[new_pivot_idx] =  nums[new_pivot_idx], nums[i]
                new_pivot_idx += 1
            
        nums[right], nums[new_pivot_idx] = nums[new_pivot_idx], nums[right]
        return new_pivot_idx

Run Time: 64 ms