Can you explain and visualize the quicksort algorithm?

Can you explain and visualize the quicksort algorithm?

Sure! Quicksort is a divide-and-conquer algorithm that sorts an array by selecting a 'pivot' element and partitioning the other elements into two sub-arrays according to whether they are less than or greater than the pivot.

How does the partitioning process work?

During partitioning, elements are rearranged so that all elements less than the pivot come before it, and all elements greater come after it. This is done recursively for the sub-arrays.

Can you show me a visual representation of quicksort?

Absolutely! Imagine an array: [3, 6, 8, 10, 1, 2, 1]. If we choose 6 as the pivot, the array will be rearranged to [3, 1, 2, 1, 6, 10, 8]. Then, we recursively apply quicksort to the left and right sub-arrays.

What are the time complexities of quicksort?

The average time complexity of quicksort is O(n log n), but in the worst case, it can degrade to O(n²) if the pivot is poorly chosen.