Wrapping Up

You’re only getting started, but you’ve already learned a few things. First, you learned how Mergesort works. Mergesort is one of the classic algorithms of computer science, so it’s good to have that under your belt.

In addition, you learned there is no one perfect algorithm. Weighing two competing algorithms is about trade-offs. There are benefits and drawbacks to each algorithm, and it’s up to you to decide which set of pros and cons will fit your application best. This will be a running theme throughout this book.

Finally, you discovered how two algorithms can have the same number of Python steps and yet have significantly different speeds in actual time. In the next chapter, you’ll learn how to grapple with this reality.