Optimizing Code With And Without Big O

Exercises for Chapter #5 of A Common-Sense Guide To Data Structures and Algorithms

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Chapter Exercises

Exercise #1

Regarding the array [50, 60, 70, 20, 30, 10]:

  1. Describe the exact steps that Selection Sort would take on the array.
  2. How many comparisons occurred?
  3. How many swaps occurred?

Exercise #2

Regarding the array [10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60]:

  1. Describe the exact steps that Selection Sort would take on the array.
  2. How many comparisons occurred?
  3. How many swaps occurred?

Exercise #3

Regarding the array [60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10]:

  1. Describe the exact steps that Selection Sort would take on the array.
  2. How many comparisons occurred?
  3. How many swaps occurred?

Exercise #4

How would you describe in Big O Notation:

  1. An algorithm that takes 2N steps?
  2. An algorithm that takes log(N / 2) steps?
  3. An algorithm that always takes 2,532 steps?

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