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Find K-th Largest and Longest Vacation

MetaSoftware Engineer · Technical Screen
MediumSoftware EngineerTechnical ScreenCoding & Algorithms

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This pair of problems evaluates array manipulation and algorithmic problem-solving skills, specifically order-statistics for selecting the k-th largest element and maximizing consecutive sequences under constrained transformations for the vacation streak problem.

Solve the following two coding problems.

  1. Find the k-th largest element

Given an integer array nums and an integer k, return the element that would appear at index k if the array were sorted in descending order.

Assume k is 0-indexed, so:

  • k = 0 means the largest element
  • k = 1 means the second largest element
  • and so on

Example:

  • nums = [5, -3, 9, 1]
  • k = 0 -> 9
  • k = 1 -> 5
  • k = 3 -> -3
  1. Maximize the longest vacation using PTO

You are given a calendar year represented as a character array containing only:

  • H = holiday
  • W = workday

You are also given an integer pto, representing how many workdays you may convert into vacation days by using Personal Time Off.

Your goal is to maximize the length of the longest consecutive vacation streak, where a vacation day is either:

  • an existing holiday (H), or
  • a workday (W) that you choose to cover with PTO

Return the maximum possible length of such a consecutive streak.

Example:

  • calendar = [W, H, H, W, W, H, W]
  • pto = 2
  • Output: 5

Explanation: By using PTO on two appropriate workdays, you can create a longest contiguous vacation block of length 5.