Range Stream Kth Signal
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Range Stream Kth Signal
A monitoring service expands several inclusive integer ranges into one combined stream. If ranges overlap, duplicate emitted values are kept because they came from different ranges. After all range values are emitted, the stream is sorted in non-decreasing order. You must identify the k-th value in this sorted stream, using one-based indexing. Input Format: You are given an array ranges and an integer k. Each range is [left, right]. Output Format: Return the k-th smallest emitted value.
Examples
ranges = [[1, 3], [5, 7]] k = 4
5
Explanation: Expanded and sorted, the stream is [1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7]. The 4th value is 5, so the output is 5.
Approach hint
Binary search the answer value.
Common mistake
Skipping assumptions, edge cases, or trade-offs can make an otherwise good answer feel incomplete.