Describe the operation of the merge sort algorithm.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The object of the merge sort algorithm is to arrange the elements of an array into ascending
order. Merge sort is a recursive algorithm. Given an array of elements that can be put into
order, if the array consists of a single element, leave it as it is. It is already sorted. Otherwise:
1. Divide the array into two subarrays of as nearly equal length as possible.
2. Use merge sort to sort each subarray.
3. Merge the two subarrays together.