It can be done for fixed-length lists. Optimal sorting networks [1] are an active research topic with many interesting connections to differentiable sorting and

It can be done for fixed-length lists. Optimal sorting networks [1] are an active research topic with many interesting connections to differentiable sorting and ranking [2]. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorting_network#Optimal_sorting_networks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorting_network#Optimal_sortin... [2]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.04019 https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.04019