Techniques to search for data elements in a distributed computing environment are described. An apparatus may comprise a processor and a memory unit communicatively coupled to the processor. The memory unit may store a correlation module that when executed by the processor is operative to determine a target rank position at a target percentile rank within a total data set. The correlation module may determine a target data item at the target rank position for the total data set using candidate data items at candidate rank positions for each of multiple sorted data subsets of the total data set, and correlation values associated with each of the candidate data items. Other embodiments are described and claimed.