K Largest Elements | Dataford Interview Questions

Otter.ai may need to identify the highest-scoring transcript segments, speakers, or search results for a ranking feature. Given a list of integers, return the k largest elements while preserving duplicate values. The result must be sorted in descending order.

Use an algorithm that avoids fully sorting the input when k is much smaller than n.

Formal Specification

Implement k_largest(nums, k).

Input: nums, a list of integers, and k, an integer.
Output: a list containing exactly the k largest values from nums, sorted from largest to smallest.
Duplicate values count as separate elements.
Do not modify nums.

Constraints

1 <= k <= len(nums)
1 <= len(nums) <= 10^5
-10^9 <= nums[i] <= 10^9
Duplicate values must be preserved
The input list must not be modified

Function Signature

def k_largest(nums, k):

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Problem