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Divide and Conquer Algorithm

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40 views2 pages

Divide and Conquer Algorithm

Uploaded by

kamleshkc191
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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DIVIDE AND CONQUER ALGORITHM

Divide and Conquer algorithm is a problem-solving strategy that involves


breaking down a complex problem into smaller, more manageable parts,
solving each part individually, and then combining the solutions to solve the
original problem. It is a widely used algorithmic technique in computer science
and mathematics.
Example: In the Merge Sort algorithm, the “Divide and Conquer” strategy is
used to sort a list of elements. Below image illustrate the dividing and merging
states to sort the array using Merge Sort.
What is Divide and Conquer Algorithm?
Divide and Conquer is a problem-solving technique that involves breaking a
larger problem into subproblems, solving the subproblems independently and
combining the solutions of those subproblems to get the solution of the larger
problem.
Stages of Divide and Conquer Algorithm:
Divide and Conquer Algorithm can be divided into three
stages: Divide, Conquer and Merge.
1. Divide:
• Break down the original problem into smaller subproblems.
• Each subproblem should represent a part of the overall problem.
• The goal is to divide the problem until no further division is possible.
2. Conquer:
• Solve each of the smaller subproblems individually.
• If a subproblem is small enough (often referred to as the “base case”),
we solve it directly without further recursion.
• The goal is to find solutions for these subproblems independently.
3. Merge:
• Combine the sub-problems to get the final solution of the whole
problem.
• Once the smaller subproblems are solved, we recursively combine their
solutions to get the solution of larger problem.
• The goal is to formulate a solution for the original problem by merging
the results from the subproblems.
Applications of Divide and Conquer Algorithm:
• Merge Sort: Merge sort is a classic example of a divide and conquer
sorting algorithm. It breaks down the array into smaller subarrays, sorts
them individually, and then merges them to obtain the sorted array.
• Median Finding: The median of a set of numbers can be found using a
divide and conquer approach. By recursively dividing the set into smaller
subsets, the median can be determined efficiently.
• Min and Max finding: Divide and Conquer algorithm can be used to find
both the minimum and maximum elements in an array simultaneously.
By splitting the array into halves and comparing the min-max pairs from
each half, the overall min and max can be identified in logarithmic time
complexity.
• Matrix Multiplication: Strassen’s algorithm for matrix multiplication is a
divide and conquer technique that reduces the number of
multiplications required for large matrices by breaking down the
matrices into smaller submatrices and combining their products.
• Closest Pair problem: The closest pair problem involves finding the two
closest points in a set of points in a multidimensional space. A divide and
conquer algorithm, such as the “divide and conquer closest pair”
algorithm, can efficiently solve this problem by recursively dividing the
points and merging the solutions from the subproblems.

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