Find Second largest number in array at most n+log₂(n)−2 comparisons [closed]

Answer 1

In Python2.7: The following code works at O(nlog log n) for the extra sort. Any optimizations?

def secondLargest(testList):
    secondList = []
    # Iterate through the list
    while(len(testList) > 1):
        left = testList[0::2]
        right = testList[1::2]

        if (len(testList) % 2 == 1):
            right.append(0)

        myzip = zip(left,right)
        mymax = [ max(list(val)) for val in myzip ]
        myzip.sort()
        secondMax = [x for x in myzip[-1] if x != max(mymax)][0]

        if (secondMax != 0 ):
            secondList.append(secondMax)
        testList = mymax

    return max(secondList)