I have a huge jigsaw puzzle to assemble

[Greg Bernhardt]

I have a huge jigsaw puzzle to assemble. I start by looking through the pieces and see if there are pairs I can join. Then, I look through the pairs and see what other pieces I can add on. The size of my assembled pieces grows and their number shrinks. I am using the algorithmic paradigm called...

 

[marcus]

Herb Simon (Nobel laureate) had something called the "Watchmaker's" paradigm. I wonder if that's what you have in mind. He was a neat guy---I worked as a research assistant for him for a while

 

[NateTG]

The greedy algorithm.

P.S. Would you indicate which answer was correct if someone posts multiples. (like brainteaser 65)

 

[Robert Zaleski]

Divide and Conquer algorithm

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Robert Zaleski with the point!