Question

How does the merge sort algorithm work (sorting a list)?

Answer 1

The merge sort algorithm follows the divide-and-conquer approach to sort a list by recursively dividing it into smaller sublists and merging them to create a sorted list.

Step-by-step explanation:

The merge sort algorithm is a sorting algorithm that follows the divide-and-conquer approach. It recursively divides the unsorted list into smaller sublists until each sublist contains only one element. It then merges these sublists to create a sorted list.

1. Divide the unsorted list into two halves.
2. Recursively sort each half by applying the merge sort algorithm.
3. Merge the sorted halves to obtain a single sorted list.

For example, let's say we have an unsorted list [5, 2, 8, 3, 1, 6], the merge sort algorithm would divide it into sublists [5, 2, 8] and [3, 1, 6]. Each sublist would then be recursively sorted, resulting in [2, 5, 8] and [1, 3, 6]. Finally, merging the two sorted halves would give us the sorted list [1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8].