Bubble Sort Explained with Simple Python Examples

This DEV Community guide walks through bubble sort, an algorithm that repeatedly swaps neighbouring items that are out of order until the list is sorted. It demonstrates a hand dry run on a six-item list, then shows a basic Python implementation that copies its input before sorting. Comparison and swap counters are added to measure the work done, yielding 15 comparisons and 6 swaps for that example. The article then introduces a swapped flag so sorting can stop early once a pass makes no changes, and compares the approach with Python's built-in sorted() function. All code outputs were produced by running the article's examples on Python 3.12.3.