Why O(n^2) Algorithms Don’t Run the Same: A Practical Sorting Benchmark in C

Introduction Have you ever wondered why algorithms with the same time complexity behave differently in practice? While learning sorting algorithms, I noticed something interesting: Algorithms with the same time complexity can perform very differently in practice. Instead of only relying on theoretical analysis, I decided to build a small benchmark in C to compare the runtime performance of six sorting algorithms. This project helped me better understand not only time complexity, but also how real-world performance is affected by implementation details. Project Repository View Source Code on GitHub What I built This project implement six classic sorting algorithms: Bubble Sort Selection Sort Insertion Sort Quick Sort Counting Sort Radix Sort Radix Sort is implemented using counting sort as a subroutine. Based on my understanding of these algorithms, I created a comparison table below to highlight their fundamental differences. Comparison Table Feature Bubble Selection Insertion Quick Co