How to sort an array using minimum number of writes?

Question

My friend was asked a question in his interview:

The interviewer gave him an array of unsorted numbers and asked him to sort. The restriction is that the number of w

Answer 1

You can use a very naive algorithm that satisfies what you need.

The algorithm should look like this:

i = 0

do
   search for the minimum in range [i..n)
   swap a[i] with a[minPos]
   i = i + 1
repeat until i = n.

The search for the minimum can cost you almost nothing, the swap costs you 3 writes, the i++ costs you 1..

This is named selection sort as stated by ash. (Sorry, I didn't knew it was selection sort :( )