What is the average time complexity of Merge Sort?

Practice Questions

Q1
What is the average time complexity of Merge Sort?
  1. O(n)
  2. O(n log n)
  3. O(n^2)
  4. O(log n)

Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions

What is the average time complexity of Merge Sort?
  • Step 1: Understand what time complexity means. It measures how the time to complete an algorithm grows as the size of the input increases.
  • Step 2: Know that Merge Sort is a sorting algorithm that divides an array into smaller parts.
  • Step 3: Realize that Merge Sort works by repeatedly splitting the array in half until each part has one element.
  • Step 4: After splitting, Merge Sort combines (or merges) these parts back together in sorted order.
  • Step 5: The process of splitting the array takes log(n) time because you keep dividing it in half.
  • Step 6: Merging the parts back together takes linear time, which is O(n), because you have to look at each element.
  • Step 7: Combine the two parts: The total time complexity is O(n) for merging and O(log n) for splitting, resulting in O(n log n).
  • Step 8: Conclude that the average time complexity of Merge Sort is O(n log n).
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