Q22

Consider an array $A=[10,7,8,19,41,35,25,31]$. Suppose the merge sort algorithm is executed on array $A$ to sort it in increasing order. The merge sort algorithm will carry out a total of $7$ merge operations. A merge operation on sorted left array $L$ and sorted right array $R$ is said to be void if the output of the merge operation is the elements of array $L$ followed by the elements of array $R$. The number of void merge operations among these $7$ merge operations is $\_\_\_\_$. (answer in integer)