Finding the Kth Smallest Element in an Array - CA07

Introduction In many real-world problems, we are not just interested in the smallest or largest element, but in a specific position when the data is sorted. One such common problem is finding the kth smallest element in an array . Problem Statement Given an array arr[] and an integer k , find the kth smallest element in the array. The kth smallest element is determined based on the sorted order of the array. Example 1: Input: arr = [ 10 , 5 , 4 , 3 , 48 , 6 , 2 , 33 , 53 , 10 ] k = 4 Output: 5 Explanation: Sorted array → [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 10, 33, 48, 53] The 4th smallest element is 5 . Example 2: Input: arr = [ 7 , 10 , 4 , 3 , 20 , 15 ] k = 3 Output: 7 Explanation: Sorted array → [3, 4, 7, 10, 15, 20] The 3rd smallest element is 7 . Approach 1: Sorting Method The simplest way is: Sort the array Return the element at index k-1 Python Implementation def kth_smallest ( arr , k ): arr . sort () return arr [ k - 1 ] # Example usage arr = [ 7 , 10 , 4 , 3 , 20 , 15 ] k = 3 print ( kth_sma