Order Engine
A tactical sorting puzzle. Minimize swaps to reach order.
Puzzle Rules
You can swap any two tiles on the board.
Live Metrics
Why sorting matters
Sorting looks simple because the goal is obvious: take a messy list and put it in order. The interesting part is how you get there.
Some methods fix small mistakes one swap at a time. Others scan for the next best item, build an ordered list piece by piece, or split the problem into smaller parts before putting everything back together. They all solve the same problem, but they behave very differently along the way.
That difference matters. The way data gets sorted affects search results, rankings, schedules, leaderboards, databases, and almost every system that has to organize information quickly. Order Engine makes those tradeoffs visible: you can watch each algorithm compare, move, split, and rebuild the list step by step.
Bubble Sort
Repeatedly swaps neighboring items that are out of order. Simple but slow on large shuffled lists.
Selection Sort
Repeatedly selects the smallest remaining item. Minimizes swaps but still scans repeatedly.
Insertion Sort
Inserts each item into the correct place. Strong on nearly sorted data.
Merge Sort
Divides the list, sorts smaller lists, then merges them. Predictable divide-and-conquer performance.
Quick Sort
Chooses a pivot and partitions values around it. Fast in practice, but pivot choice matters.