Retrieve the two highest item from a list containing 100,000 integers

Question

How can retrieve the two highest item from a list containing 100,000 integers without having to sort the entire list first?

Answer 1

A really slick way is to use heapq. Heapify the array (O(n)), then just pop an many elements that you need (log(n)). (Saw this question in an interview once, good question to keep in mind.)