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Array Sort Without Built-ins

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Your question is Array Sort Without Built-ins. Start with the requirements on the right.

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Problem

In an Incedo QA automation pipeline, test results arrive as an unsorted array of integer execution times. Implement a function that returns the values in nondecreasing order without using Python's built-in sort() or sorted() functions.

Use an algorithm with O(n log n) worst-case time complexity. The input array may contain duplicate values, zero, and negative integers. The function may allocate additional memory, but it must not call any library or built-in sorting routine.

Formal Specification

  • Input: nums, a list of integers.
  • Output: A new list containing the same integers as nums, arranged in nondecreasing order.
  • The input list itself does not need to be modified.
  • Do not use sort(), sorted(), heaps, or external sorting libraries.

Constraints

  • 0 <= nums.length <= 10^5
  • -10^9 <= nums[i] <= 10^9
  • Do not use sort(), sorted(), heaps, or external sorting libraries
  • Return exactly the same elements as the input in nondecreasing order

Function Signature

def sort_array(nums):
Your solutionPython 3
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