Divide and conquer

In this section, we'll discuss algorithms that use a strategy called divide and conquer to solve problems more efficiently. The name comes from the idea that the algorithm will break (or divide) the problem down into sub-problems that can be more easily solved (or conquered). Then, the solutions to these sub-problems are combined to yield an answer to the original problem.

Over the next several videos, Eric will walk through an example—specifically, he'll demonstrate how to use a divide and conquer algorithm to efficiently find the median element out of a collection of unsorted numbers. Following this, you'll have the opportunity to do some hands-on work and solve several different problems using a divide-and-conquer approach.