Manager of the Largest Department - Problem

You are given an Employees table containing employee information including their department ID and position.

Task: Find the name of the manager from the largest department (department with the most employees).

Important notes:

  • There may be multiple largest departments when the number of employees is the same
  • Return results sorted by dep_id in ascending order
  • Only return managers from departments that have the maximum employee count

Table Schema

Employees
Column Name Type Description
emp_id PK int Unique employee identifier
emp_name varchar Employee name
dep_id int Department identifier
position varchar Employee position (Manager, Developer, etc.)
Primary Key: emp_id
Note: Each row represents one employee with their department and position

Input & Output

Example 1 — Multiple departments with different sizes
Input Table:
emp_id emp_name dep_id position
1 Alice 1 Manager
2 Bob 1 Developer
3 Charlie 2 Manager
4 David 3 Manager
5 Eve 3 Developer
Output:
emp_name
Alice
David
💡 Note:

Department 1 has 2 employees (Alice, Bob), Department 2 has 1 employee (Charlie), Department 3 has 2 employees (David, Eve). The largest departments are 1 and 3 with 2 employees each. The managers of these departments are Alice and David, returned sorted by dep_id.
Example 2 — Single largest department
Input Table:
emp_id emp_name dep_id position
1 John 1 Manager
2 Jane 1 Developer
3 Mike 1 Analyst
4 Sarah 2 Manager
Output:
emp_name
John
💡 Note:

Department 1 has 3 employees (John, Jane, Mike) and Department 2 has 1 employee (Sarah). Department 1 is the largest with 3 employees, so we return its manager John.
Example 3 — All departments same size
Input Table:
emp_id emp_name dep_id position
1 Tom 1 Manager
2 Lisa 2 Manager
3 Rick 3 Manager
Output:
emp_name
Tom
Lisa
Rick
💡 Note:

All departments have exactly 1 employee each (all managers). Since all departments are tied for largest size, we return all managers sorted by dep_id: Tom, Lisa, Rick.

Constraints

  • 1 ≤ emp_id ≤ 100
  • 1 ≤ dep_id ≤ 100
  • emp_name consists of English letters and spaces
  • position is a valid job title including 'Manager'

Visualization

Tap to expand
Manager of the Largest DepartmentInput: Employeesemp_idemp_namedep_idposition1Alice1Manager2Bob1Developer3David3Manager4Eve3DeveloperCount by DeptFind Max SizeDept SizesDept 1: 2← MaxDept 2: 1Dept 3: 2← MaxFilter ManagersOutputemp_nameAliceDavid
Understanding the Visualization
1
Input
Employee table with departments and positions
2
Count & Rank
Count employees per department, find maximum
3
Filter
Select managers from largest departments
Key Takeaway
🎯 Key Insight: Use aggregation to find maximum department size, then filter managers from those departments

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