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© 2017 Interview Camp (Interviewcamp - Io)

The document discusses quick sort, a common sorting algorithm. It explains that quick sort is often used in built-in sort functions and that interviewees should know how to implement it. The document also discusses the Dutch National Flag problem and provides sample code to partition the array around a pivot for quick sort.

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abhi74
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41 views2 pages

© 2017 Interview Camp (Interviewcamp - Io)

The document discusses quick sort, a common sorting algorithm. It explains that quick sort is often used in built-in sort functions and that interviewees should know how to implement it. The document also discusses the Dutch National Flag problem and provides sample code to partition the array around a pivot for quick sort.

Uploaded by

abhi74
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Interview Camp 

Implementation: Quick Sort 


 
Quick sort is the most common sorting algorithm in the industry. If you look at most 
in-built sort functions (e.g, the unix sort() function), they will most likely use quick sort. 
 
You should know how to implement it. It is rare to ask to code Quick Sort. 
However, you can be asked details about how it works, its time/space complexities, 
pseudocode, etc.   
 
Also, You should know how to code the ​Dutch National Flag (DNF)​ problem. Once you know that, quick 
sort is pretty trivial to implement.  
 
In DNF, we put all the elements equal to the pivot in the middle. There is a common implementation 
where you put only the pivot in the middle. While that has the same worse case time complexity, 
it does worse when there are a lot of duplicates in the array. Try it out yourself. 
/*
* Returns the border points of the middle section
*
* [0,0,0,1,1,1,2,2,2]
* ^ ^
*/
public static Pair<Integer> dutchNationalFlag(int[] a, int start, int end, int
pivotIndex) {
int pivot = a[pivotIndex];
int low = start - 1, mid = start - 1, high = end + 1;

while (mid + 1 < high) {


if (a[mid + 1] > pivot) {
Utils.swap(a, high - 1, mid + 1);
high--;
} else if (a[mid + 1] == pivot) {
mid++;
} else {
Utils.swap(a, mid + 1, low + 1);
mid++;
low++;
}
}

return new Pair<Integer>(low, high);


}

public static void quickSort(int[] a, int start, int end) {


if (start < 0 || end >= a.length || start >= end)
return;

int pivot = start + (new Random().nextInt(end - start + 1));

 
 
© ​2017 Interview Camp (interviewcamp.io) 
 
Interview Camp 

Pair<Integer> points = dutchNationalFlag(a, start, end, pivot);


quickSort(a, start, points.getFirst());
quickSort(a, points.getSecond(), end);
}

public static int[] quickSort(int[] a) {


if (a == null)
return a;

quickSort(a, 0, a.length - 1);


return a;
}
 

 
 
© ​2017 Interview Camp (interviewcamp.io) 

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