Cyclic Sort: Introduction

Let’s go over the Cyclic Sort pattern, its real-world applications, and some problems we can solve with it.

About the pattern

Imagine we have a classroom with numbered seats, and each student is given a card with a number corresponding to their seat number. To maintain classroom decorum and order, students are required to sit in their assigned seats. However, students have randomly taken seats, so the seating arrangement is all jumbled up. If we have to fix this, we start with the first seat, seat 1, and check if the student sitting here has the right card, i.e., the number 1. If not, we move the student to the seat corresponding to their card number. We repeat this process for each seat until every student is in their proper seat according to the number on their card. After completing this process for all seats, the students will be sitting in ascending order according to their seat numbers.