Interview Prep: Merge Sort

Sorting is a key activity in programming, and you should understand how it works. Merge sort is a common approach. By learning this algorithm, you’ll improve your understanding of sorting. It serves as a cornerstone to your algorithmic knowledge, helping you in your job, and improving your interview performance.

In this class, we’ll look at:

• How the merge sort algorithm works
• The time and space complexity
• An implementation coded in Python

The code I use for the final chapter can be found in my GitHub repository.

Project

I encourage students of this class to write their own merge sort algorithm. It’s not mandatory, but helps internalize the information I present.

In the code chapter of the course, I provide some points of interest. Coding these provide a deeper understanding of the algorithm.