Leetcode•Mar 26, 2026

Kth Largest Element in an Array

Hazrat Ali

Leetcode

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.

Can you solve it without sorting?

 

Example 1:

Input: nums = [3,2,1,5,6,4], k = 2
Output: 5

Example 2:

Input: nums = [3,2,3,1,2,4,5,5,6], k = 4
Output: 4

Solution
var findKthLargest = function(nums, k) {
    let target = nums.length - k;

    function quickSelect(left, right) {
        let pivot = nums[right];
        let p = left;

        for (let i = left; i < right; i++) {
            if (nums[i] <= pivot) {
                [nums[i], nums[p]] = [nums[p], nums[i]];
                p++;
            }
        }

        [nums[p], nums[right]] = [nums[right], nums[p]];

        if (p === target) return nums[p];
        else if (p < target) return quickSelect(p + 1, right);
        else return quickSelect(left, p - 1);
    }

    return quickSelect(0, nums.length - 1);
};



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