Can you explain how quicksort works with a visualization?

Can you explain how quicksort works with a visualization?

Sure! Quicksort is a divide-and-conquer algorithm. It works by selecting a 'pivot' element and partitioning the array into two sub-arrays: elements less than the pivot and elements greater than the pivot. Would you like to see a step-by-step visualization?

Yes, that would be great! How does the partitioning look?

In the visualization, you'll see the array being divided around the pivot. For example, if we choose 5 as the pivot, all elements less than 5 will move to the left, and those greater will move to the right. This process repeats recursively for the sub-arrays.

What happens after the partitioning is done?

Once the partitioning is complete, the quicksort algorithm recursively sorts the sub-arrays. When the base case is reached (an array of size 0 or 1), the array is considered sorted.

Can you show me a complete example with numbers?

Absolutely! Let's take the array [3, 6, 8, 10, 1, 2, 1]. If we choose 6 as the pivot, the array will be partitioned into [3, 1, 2, 1] and [8, 10]. We then sort these sub-arrays recursively.