TLDR: Why Slowsort is Hilariously Inefficient
Date: 2020-07-26 Source: https://arpitbhayani.me/blogs/slowsort
Overview
Explore Slowsort, the deterministically worst sorting algorithm! Learn how it works and its "Multiply and Surrender" paradigm. Slowsort is a sorting algorithm that is designed to be deterministically sub-optimal.
Key Points
- sort the first half recursively
- find the maximum of the whole array by comparing the last elements of both the sorted halves and place it at the end of the array
- Slowsort is a sorting algorithm that is designed to be deterministically sub-optimal.
- The algorithm was published in 1986 by Andrei Broder and Jorge Stolfi in their paper Pessimal Algorithms and Simplexity Analysis where they expressed a bunch of very in-efficient algorithms.
- These techniques and algorithms are special because they never make a wrong move while solving a problem, instead, they find ways to delay the success.
- In this essay, we put our focus on the Slowsort algorithm based on the Multiply and Surrender paradigm.