Given $k$-sorted arrays in ascending order, is it possible to merge all $k$ arrays to a single sorted array in $O(n\log(k))$ time where $n$ denotes all the elements combined.

The question is definitely aiming towards a Min-heap/AVL tree solution, which can in fact achieve $O(n\log(k))$ time complexity.

However i'm wondering if there exists a different approach, like a merge variant which can achieve the same result.

The closest I've seen is to merge all the arrays into one array which disregards their given ascending order, than doing comparison-based sort which takes $O(n\log(n))$ but not quite $O(n\log(m))$.

Is there an algorithm variant which can achieve this result? Or a different data-structure?

Given $k$-sorted arrays in ascending order, is it possible to merge all $k$ arrays to a single sorted array in $O(n\log(k))$ time where $n$ denotes all the elements combined.

The question is definitely aiming towards a Min-heap/AVL tree solution, which can in fact achieve $O(n\log(k))$ time complexity.

However i'm wondering if there exists a different approach, like a merge variant which can achieve the same result.

The closest I've seen is to merge all the arrays into one array which disregards their given ascending order, than doing comparison-based sort which takes $O(n\log(n))$ but not quite $O(n\log(k))$.

Is there an algorithm variant which can achieve this result? Or a different data-structure?