# Divide and Conquer Algorithms Divide and Conquer is a paradigm for solving problems that involves breaking a problem into smaller sub-problems, solving the sub-problems recursively, and then combining their solutions to solve the original problem. ## Merge Sort Merge Sort is a popular sorting algorithm that follows the divide and conquer strategy. It divides the input array into two halves, recursively sorts the halves, and then merges them. **Algorithm Overview:** - **Divide:** Divide the unsorted list into two sublists of about half the size. - **Conquer:** Recursively sort each sublist. - **Combine:** Merge the sorted sublists back into one sorted list. ```python def merge_sort(arr): if len(arr) > 1: mid = len(arr) // 2 left_half = arr[:mid] right_half = arr[mid:] merge_sort(left_half) merge_sort(right_half) i = j = k = 0 while i < len(left_half) and j < len(right_half): if left_half[i] < right_half[j]: arr[k] = left_half[i] i += 1 else: arr[k] = right_half[j] j += 1 k += 1 while i < len(left_half): arr[k] = left_half[i] i += 1 k += 1 while j < len(right_half): arr[k] = right_half[j] j += 1 k += 1 arr = [12, 11, 13, 5, 6, 7] merge_sort(arr) print("Sorted array:", arr) ``` ## Complexity Analysis - **Time Complexity:** O(n log n) in all cases - **Space Complexity:** O(n) additional space for the merge operation ---