Sorting

Python's sorted() uses Timsort (O(n log n)). Stable, fast, built-in.

Code example

# sort by score descending
leaderboard = sorted(rows, key=lambda r: r.score, reverse=True)

# multi-key sort: score desc, then time asc
leaderboard = sorted(rows, key=lambda r: (-r.score, r.elapsed_ms))

# in-place
rows.sort(key=lambda r: r.score, reverse=True)

How it works

Sorting arranges items in order. Python's sorted() returns a new list; list.sort() sorts in place. Both use Timsort (a hybrid merge/insertion sort) at O(n log n). The key= argument lets you sort by a computed field — sorted() calls key on each item and sorts by the result. The leaderboard code uses sorted(rows, key=lambda r: -r.score) to rank by score descending. The negative-sign trick turns a descending sort into an ascending sort on the negated key.