CST370 - Week 4

 

CST370-30_2252: Design & Analysis of Algorithms – Week 4

We are now halfway through the course after completing the midterm exam. This week was shorter because we were given time to study for the exam. I dedicated most of my study time to reviewing topics covered in previous weeks. Some of the key concepts required significant focus and practice in specific procedures to solve the problems. I also attended the midterm Q&A session, which was very helpful in discussing several topics.

This week's material was relatively light, focusing only on introducing the Merge Sort algorithm. The Merge Sort technique is based on the divide and conquer strategy. An array that needs to be sorted is divided into smaller arrays, and each part is solved individually before merging them. During the merging process, elements are compared between the two arrays to sort them into the array. This process continues until all elements are sorted into a single array. The time efficiency of Merge Sort is calculated using the Master Theorem, resulting in a time complexity of Θ(n log n).