Grokking Algorithms, Second Edition

4 Quicksort

In this chapter

• You learn about divide and conquer. Sometimes you’ll come across a problem that can’t be solved by any algorithm you’ve learned. When a good algorithmist encounters such a problem, they don’t just give up. They have a toolbox full of techniques they use on the problem, trying to come up with a solution. Divide and conquer is the first general technique you learn.
• You learn about quicksort, an elegant sorting algorithm often used in practice. Quicksort uses divide and conquer.

You learned all about recursion in the last chapter. This chapter focuses on using your new skill to solve problems. We’ll explore divide and conquer (D&C), a well-known recursive technique for solving problems.

This chapter really gets into ...