Sequencing is the sequential execution of operations, selection is the decision to execute one operation versus another operation (like a fork in the road), and iteration is repeating the same operations a …

We've partnered with Dartmouth college professors Tom Cormen and Devin Balkcom to teach introductory computer science algorithms, including searching, sorting, recursion, and graph theory.

Other sorting algorithms, like selection sort, don't really care what the array looks like. These algorithms will typically perform the same number of steps regardless of what the input looks like.

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The last line is because 1 + 2 + 3 + ⋯ + n is the arithmetic series, as we saw when we analyzed selection sort. (We subtract 1 because for quicksort, the summation starts at 2, not 1.) We have …

We'll translate the Pig Latin algorithm to JavaScript, since that's our language of choice on Khan Academy. We can use a for loop for the repetition, an if / else for the selection, and then a mix of …

You can easily remember the steps of a divide-and-conquer algorithm as divide, conquer, combine. Here's how to view one step, assuming that each divide step creates two subproblems (though some …

In practice, quicksort outperforms merge sort, and it significantly outperforms selection sort and insertion sort. Here is how quicksort uses divide-and-conquer. As with merge sort, think of sorting a subarray …

Binary search is an efficient algorithm for finding an item from a sorted list of items. It works by repeatedly dividing in half the portion of the list that could contain the item, until you've narrowed …

Sorting a list of items into ascending or descending order can help either a human or a computer find items on that list quickly, perhaps using an algorithm like binary search.