COP 4531: Lecture 3

Learning objectives

After this class, you should be able to:

1. Describe the three components of divide and conquer algorithms.
2. Given two sorted arrays, show the steps executed by the linear time MERGE procedure discussed in class.
3. Given an array, show the steps executed by MERGE-SORT to sort the array.
4. Derive the time complexity of merge sort.
5. Given a simple problem, develop a divide and conquer algorithm to solve it, and derive its time complexity.

Reading assignment

1. CLR: Section 2.3.
2. None.

Exercises and review questions

• Questions on current lecture's material
  1. Exercise 2.3-1.
  2. Exercise 2.3-4.
  3. Give a divide and conquer algorithm for the linear search problem mentioned in exercise 2.1-3, and derive its time complexity.
  4. (Post your solution on the discussion board) Why does divide and conquer not help with the linear search problem, while it helps with sorting?

• Questions on next lecture's material
  1. None.