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Efficiently Sort Large Datasets

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Problem

ZoomInfo processes large collections of prospect and company records that may exceed the practical working memory available to a single operation. Given a list of integers representing sortable record keys, sort the data efficiently by dividing it into bounded chunks and performing a k-way merge.

Implement sort_large_dataset(nums, chunk_size) and return a new list containing all values in nondecreasing order. Each chunk must be sorted independently, then merged using a min-heap rather than repeatedly scanning every chunk.

Formal Specification

  • Input: nums, a list of integers, and chunk_size, a positive integer.
  • Output: A new list containing the same values as nums, sorted in nondecreasing order.
  • The input list must not be modified.

Constraints

  • 0 <= len(nums) <= 100,000
  • 1 <= chunk_size <= 10,000
  • -10^9 <= nums[i] <= 10^9
  • The input list must remain unchanged

Function Signature

def sort_large_dataset(nums, chunk_size):
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