HackerRank – Zig Zag Sequence solution

In this article, I’ll explain the Zig Zag Sequence algorithm problem on HackerRank. Problem statement: You’re given an integer array with an odd number of elements (ex: [5, 2, 3, 1, 4]). You need to re-arrange the elements so they’re in a zig zag sequence, which means: Here’s a diagram to help you visualize what … Read more

Comparing performance with Benchmark.NET graphs

The following graph compares the execution time of three sort implementations ran against varying input sizes (1k, 10k, 100k): This graph was generated using Benchmark.NET, which I’ll show how to use in this article. I’ll be comparing the performance of multithreaded quicksort implementations (with the non-threaded Array.Sort() as a baseline). Create console app and reference … Read more

C# – Default method implementations and constants in interfaces

You can add default method implementations (and constants) to interfaces (in C# 7+), like this: Note: The Log() method is converting the DateTime to a string with a custom format and including it with the logging message. This outputs the following: Microsoft’s stated purpose for this feature is that it allows you add methods to … Read more

Multithreaded quicksort in C#

One day I decided to challenge myself by trying to implement multithreaded quicksort. I wanted to see how it would compare to the built-in Array.Sort() method. I came up with two algorithms that were 2-4x faster than Array.Sort(): After continuing to tinker, in attempts to further optimize, I came across the AsParallel().OrderBy() method (PLINQ). After … Read more