Do I need to handle negative numbers differently?
No, as long as you initialize your max and second_max variables to the lowest possible integer value (e.g., Integer.MIN_VALUE) rather than 0.
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More FAQs in The One-Pass Optimized Approach for the Second Largest
It is an algorithm that completes its objective by iterating through the dataset exactly once, achieving optimal O(N) performance.
When a new absolute maximum is found, the previous maximum value is assigned to the 'second_max' variable before the 'max' variable is updated.
It is exactly O(N) time complexity, and it is practically twice as fast as the two-pass method since it loops through the array only one time.
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