Should I mention the sorting approach in an interview?
Yes, outlining the brute-force approach first shows you can think through multiple solutions and sets the stage for you to present the optimized version.
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More FAQs in Why Sorting to Find the Second Largest is Suboptimal
It is not technically wrong, but it is highly inefficient (O(N log N)) and will not pass the interviewer's requirement for an optimal O(N) solution.
The most efficient general-purpose sorting algorithms (like Merge Sort, Quick Sort, TimSort) require O(N log N) comparisons mathematically to guarantee a sorted array.
Sorting places duplicates next to each other. To find the second unique largest, you still have to iterate through the sorted array to bypass the duplicates.
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