This is a common Microsoft interview question asked of software developers. On the one hand, the speed of sorting can depend on the environment in which the sorting is done, and on the other hand, it can depend on the type of items that are sorted and the distribution of these particular items. For example, if you are sorting an extensive database that cannot fit into memory all at once, this would be quite different from sorting an array of 100 integers. Adding to that, not only will the implementation of an algorithm be quite different, but it may even be that of the same algorithm. It might also help to know the five Sorts that will likely be brought up in an interview. They are: Quick Sort, Insertion Sort, Shell Sort, Heap Sort, and Merge Sort. Study them and research examples of how they are used and the differences between them. I will give examples that you can use here as well.