How heap sort fixes selection sort

Heap sort and selection sort share the same core strategy of repeatedly finding the largest element and placing it at the end of the list. Selection sort is slow because it scans the entire unsorted portion each time. Heap sort improves this by organizing the list as a binary max-heap, a binary tree where every parent is greater than or equal to its children, guaranteeing the largest element is always at the top. After swapping the top element to its sorted position, heap sort restores the heap property by bubbling the displaced element down, allowing the next largest to rise. This avoids repeated full scans and makes the process significantly more efficient.