Google, Amazon, and Meta all ask this. It combines linked lists, heaps, and divide-and-conquer. This problem appears in real systems: merging sorted log files, external sorting, database merge operations. Understanding it shows you can handle real-world engineering problems. The divide-and-conquer approach mirrors merge sort. The heap approach shows you understand priority queues. Knowing both demonstrates versatility.
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$ curl repovive.com/roadmaps/maang-interview-prep/heaps-priority-queues/merge-k-sorted-lists-why-this-problem
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