[Obituary] Tony Hoare, creator of the famous algorithm 'Quicksort,' dies at age 92. Turing Award winner and former professor emeritus at Oxford University.

by Gregor Lingl

Charles Anthony Richard Hoare (Tony Hoare), the inventor of the data sorting algorithm ' Quicksort ,' passed away on March 5, 2026, at the age of 92.

Computational Complexity: Tony Hoare (1934-2026)
https://blog.computationalcomplexity.org/2026/03/tony-hoare-1934-2026.html

Hoare is the man who developed quicksort at the age of 26. Quicksort is an algorithm that repeatedly selects one random piece of data from randomly arranged data, sorts the data by whether it is larger or smaller than the random piece of data, and then sorts them in order. As the name suggests, it is known for its high speed.

Illustrated 'Quicksort' algorithm - GIGAZINE

'KVICK SÖRT' is an easy-to-understand illustration of the sorting algorithm 'Quicksort' similar to an IKEA manual - GIGAZINE

Hoare studied Classics and Philosophy at university, and after completing his degree he undertook intensive training in Russian through a linguistics school program. His strong personal interest in statistics and the emerging world of computers led him to join Elliott Brothers, a computer company in London, at the age of 26.

Since then, Hoare has made significant contributions to the fields of computer science and computing, receiving the Turing Award for his contributions to programming languages at the age of 46. In later years, he was an honorary professor at Oxford University.

According to a person close to Hoare, when he told his boss at Elliott Brothers that he knew of an algorithm that was faster than the one the company had just implemented, he was told, 'I'll bet you sixpence!' Hoare won the bet.

'What I think is particularly telling about Tony's humble personality is that even though he believed quicksort was faster, he implemented the slow algorithm that was requested and then expressed his opinion at the end. This speaks to the professionalism that Tony always maintained,' said a close friend.

Hoare is known for some of his famous programming quotes, such as, 'There are two ways to design software: one is to design it very simply so that it has no obvious flaws, and the other is to design it very complex so that it has no obvious flaws.'