Question

Given the array [38, 27, 43, 3, 9, 82, 10], what would be the two sorted subarrays immediately *before the final merge step* in a Merge Sort algorithm?

A [3, 9, 10, 27] and [38, 43, 82] Correct Answer Incorrect Answer
B [27, 38] and [3, 9, 10, 43, 82] Correct Answer Incorrect Answer
C [3, 27, 38, 43] and [9, 10, 82] Correct Answer Incorrect Answer
D [3, 9, 27, 38] and [10, 43, 82] Correct Answer Incorrect Answer
E [3, 9, 10] and [27, 38, 43, 82] Correct Answer Incorrect Answer

Solution

  • The array has 7 elements

  • It is divided into:

    • Left half: [38, 27, 43, 3]

    • Right half: [9, 82, 10]

Each half is independently fully sorted before the final merge. Sorting the left half [38, 27, 43, 3]

Sorted → [3, 27, 38, 43] Sorting the right half [9, 82, 10]

Sorted → [9, 10, 82] Just before final merge

The two sorted subarrays are:

  • [3, 27, 38, 43]

  • [9, 10, 82]

These two are then merged to produce the final sorted array:
[3, 9, 10, 27, 38, 43, 82]

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