Quick Sort
Posted 2025-11-16 | *By : Cuneyt Yildirim *# Quick Sort
Problem Statement
Given an unsorted array of n elements, write a function to sort the array
Approach
- Make the right-most index value pivot
- partition the array using pivot value
- quicksort left partition recursively
- quicksort right partition recursively
Time Complexity
O(n^2)Worst case performanceO(n log n)Best-case performanceO(n log n)Average performance
Space Complexity
O(log n) Worst case
Founder’s Name
Tony Hoare in 1959
Example
arr[] = {10, 80, 30, 90, 40, 50, 70}
Indexes: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
low = 0, high = 6, pivot = arr[h] = 70
Initialize index of smaller element, i = -1
Traverse elements from j = low to high-1
j = 0 : Since arr[j] <= pivot, do i++ and swap(arr[i], arr[j])
i = 0
arr[] = {10, 80, 30, 90, 40, 50, 70} // No change as i and j
// are same
j = 1 : Since arr[j] > pivot, do nothing
// No change in i and arr[]
j = 2 : Since arr[j] <= pivot, do i++ and swap(arr[i], arr[j])
i = 1
arr[] = {10, 30, 80, 90, 40, 50, 70} // We swap 80 and 30
j = 3 : Since arr[j] > pivot, do nothing
// No change in i and arr[]
j = 4 : Since arr[j] <= pivot, do i++ and swap(arr[i], arr[j])
i = 2
arr[] = {10, 30, 40, 90, 80, 50, 70} // 80 and 40 Swapped
j = 5 : Since arr[j] <= pivot, do i++ and swap arr[i] with arr[j]
i = 3
arr[] = {10, 30, 40, 50, 80, 90, 70} // 90 and 50 Swapped
We come out of loop because j is now equal to high-1.
Finally we place pivot at correct position by swapping
arr[i+1] and arr[high] (or pivot)
arr[] = {10, 30, 40, 50, 70, 90, 80} // 80 and 70 Swapped
Now 70 is at its correct place. All elements smaller than
70 are before it and all elements greater than 70 are after
it.