Solution: Kth Smallest Number in M Sorted Lists
Explore the k-way merge technique to find the kth smallest number among m sorted lists. Understand how to use a min-heap to merge without full sorting, improving time complexity to O((m+k) log m). Learn step-by-step how to implement this optimized algorithm and evaluate its efficiency compared to naive methods.
Statement
Given a list, lists, containing k, find the
Even if some values appear multiple times across the lists, each occurrence is treated as a unique element when determining the
If k exceeds the total number of elements across all lists, return the largest element among them. If the lists are empty, return 0.
Constraints:
-
lists[i].length -
lists[i][j]