Solution: Kth Smallest Number in M Sorted Lists
Understand how to find the kth smallest element among multiple sorted lists by applying the k-way merge algorithm with a min-heap. This lesson teaches you to efficiently manage sorted data, ensuring optimal time and space complexity while handling duplicates and edge cases.
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]