it is similar to the quickSort strategy, where we pick an arbitrary pivot, and bring the smaller elements to its left, and the larger to the right
public static int kthElInUnsortedList(List<int> list, int k)
{
if (list.Count == 1)
return list[0];
List<int> left = new List<int>();
List<int> right = new List<int>();
int pivotIndex = list.Count / 2;
int pivot = list[pivotIndex]; //arbitrary
for (int i = 0; i < list.Count && i != pivotIndex; i++)
{
int currentEl = list[i];
if (currentEl < pivot)
left.Add(currentEl);
else
right.Add(currentEl);
}
if (k == left.Count + 1)
return pivot;
if (left.Count < k)
return kthElInUnsortedList(right, k - left.Count - 1);
else
return kthElInUnsortedList(left, k);
}