someplaceguy

    # If there are < 5 items, just return the median
    if len(l) < 5:
        return nlogn_median(l)

    # If there are < 5 items, just return the median
    if len(l) < 5:
        # In this case, we fall back on the first median function we wrote.
        # Since we only run this on a list of 5 or fewer items, it doesn't
        # depend on the length of the input and can be considered constant
        # time.
        return nlogn_median(l)

    return l[len(l) / 2]

    def quickselect_median(l, pivot_fn=random.choice):
        if len(l) % 2 == 1:
            return quickselect(l, len(l) // 2, pivot_fn)
        else:
            return 0.5 * (quickselect(l, len(l) / 2 - 1, pivot_fn) +
                           quickselect(l, len(l) / 2, pivot_fn))