Flashcards on Merge sort
Merge Sort Explained: A Comprehensive Guide for Students
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Merge Sort Algorithm
20 cards
Card 1
Question: What is Merge Sort?
Answer: Merge Sort is a highly efficient, general-purpose, comparison-based sorting algorithm.
Card 2
Question: What algorithmic design paradigm is Merge Sort based on?
Answer: Merge Sort is based on the 'divide and conquer' paradigm.
Card 3
Question: What are the three main steps of the 'divide and conquer' approach in Merge Sort?
Answer: The three main steps are Divide, Conquer, and Combine (Merge).
Card 4
Question: Describe the 'Divide' step in Merge Sort.
Answer: The unsorted list is divided into n sublists, each containing one element. A list with a single element is inherently sorted.
Card 5
Question: Describe the 'Conquer' step in Merge Sort.
Answer: Each sublist is recursively sorted. In practice, this step involves repeatedly splitting the list in half until individual elements are reached.
Card 6
Question: Describe the 'Combine (Merge)' step in Merge Sort.
Answer: The sublists are repeatedly merged to produce new sorted sublists until there is only one sorted list remaining.
Card 7
Question: What is the base case for the recursion in Merge Sort?
Answer: If the array has 0 or 1 element, it is already sorted.
Card 8
Question: What happens after the array is fully divided into single-element sub-arrays in Merge Sort?
Answer: The algorithm begins the 'merge' phase, combining these sub-arrays back together in sorted order.
Card 9
Question: What is the role of the `merge` function in Merge Sort?
Answer: The `merge` function takes two already sorted sub-arrays and combines them into a single, larger sorted array.
Card 10
Question: How does the `merge` function combine two sorted sub-arrays?
Answer: It compares the first elements of both sub-arrays, picks the smaller one, and adds it to the result array. This process continues until all elements f