In the same way that mathematicians seldom solve quadratic equations, programmers seldom implement sorting algorithms. They are still a hugely important buildin

In the same way that mathematicians seldom solve quadratic equations, programmers seldom implement sorting algorithms. They are still a hugely important building block, and if you don't know how they work you will have little hope of creating good algorithms for situations when the off-the-shelf libraries can't help you anymore. Loads of programmers don't aspire to technically challenging work though and they will likely do fine, every now and then littering with accidentally quadratic code.