How to find third or nᵗʰ maximum salary from salary table?

Question

How to find third or n^th maximum salary from salary table(EmpID, EmpName, EmpSalary) in optimized way?

Answer 1

SELECT MIN(COLUMN_NAME)
FROM   (
           SELECT DISTINCT TOP 3     COLUMN_NAME
           FROM   TABLE_NAME
           ORDER BY
                  COLUMN_NAME        DESC
       ) AS 'COLUMN_NAME'