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Bubble Sort Visualizer — Animated, Step-by-Step

Animated bubble sort with step controls, speed, custom input, live comparison/swap counters and pseudocode. Runs entirely in your browser.

Free No signup Client-side Privacy friendly Updated
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Comparisons: Swaps / writes: Array accesses:

Code examples

Ready-to-copy reference implementations. Free to use in your own projects and assignments.

How to use

  1. 1 Press Play to watch the array sort, or use Step to advance one comparison at a time.
  2. 2 Adjust Size for more or fewer bars, and Speed to slow the animation down.
  3. 3 Type your own numbers into Custom input and press Apply to sort a specific array.
  4. 4 Follow the highlighted pseudocode line and the live comparison / swap counters.

Why use this tool

  • See exactly how adjacent comparisons and swaps bubble the largest value to the end each pass.
  • Step forward and backward through every operation — no black box.
  • Live metrics show why bubble sort is O(n²): comparisons grow with the array size.
  • Runs entirely in your browser. No signup, no uploads.

Frequently asked questions

What is bubble sort?

Bubble sort repeatedly steps through the list, compares adjacent elements, and swaps them if they are in the wrong order. After each full pass the next-largest value is in its final position.

What is the time complexity of bubble sort?

O(n²) in the average and worst case because of the nested loops. Best case is O(n) when the array is already sorted — the optimized version detects no swaps and stops early.

Is bubble sort stable?

Yes. Equal elements keep their original relative order because it only swaps on a strict greater-than comparison.

When should I use bubble sort?

Almost never in production — it is a teaching algorithm. For real workloads use a built-in sort (Timsort / introsort). Bubble sort is valuable for understanding comparisons, swaps, and stability.

What is Bubble Sort Visualizer?

A Bubble Sort Visualizer is an interactive tool that animates the bubble sort algorithm, showing each adjacent comparison and swap as the largest values "bubble" to the end of the array. It highlights the active pseudocode line and counts comparisons and swaps so learners can see why bubble sort runs in O(n²) time.

Features

Step-by-step animation

Watch every comparison and swap with adjustable speed and custom input.

Complexity

Time: best O(n) (sorted, with early exit), average/worst O(n²). Space: O(1). Stable, in-place.

100% private

Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded.

Example

Input

[5, 1, 4, 2]

Output

Pass 1 → [1, 4, 2, 5]; Pass 2 → [1, 2, 4, 5] (sorted)

Common use cases

  1. 1

    Learn sorting basics

    See why adjacent-swap sorting is O(n²) and how swaps propagate.

  2. 2

    Teach comparisons & swaps

    Demonstrate the comparison/swap counts on small arrays.

  3. 3

    Compare with faster sorts

    Contrast bubble sort against merge or quicksort to motivate O(n log n).

Summary

Zerethon's bubble sort visualizer animates the algorithm step by step in your browser, showing each adjacent comparison and swap as larger values bubble to the end. Bubble sort runs in O(n²) time on average and worst case, O(n) on an already-sorted array with early-exit, and O(1) extra space; it is stable and in-place. It is mainly an educational algorithm — use a faster sort in practice.

Category
Algorithm
Pricing
Free
Privacy
Browser-based
Signup
Not required

References

Privacy

Your data never leaves your browser unless explicitly stated. Bubble Sort Visualizer runs entirely client-side — no server upload, no logging, no tracking of your input.

New to this? Read the step-by-step explanation with Big-O analysis: Learn Sorting Algorithms →

Compare

Quicksort vs Merge sort Bubble sort vs Quicksort

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