Assess learners' ability to analyze and compare time and space trade-offs among common sorting algorithms (quicksort, mergesort, heapsort, insertion sort). Test understanding of average and worst-case time complexity, auxiliary space requirements, in-place vs. out-of-place behavior, recursion/stack overhead, stability, and practical performance on inputs of different sizes and presortedness. Require justification of algorithm choice for given scenarios (limited memory, nearly sorted data, need for stability, worst-case guarantees) with concise complexity reasoning and trade-off analysis.