Recall that randomized quicksort selects a pivot uniformly at random in each recursive call, making the expected behavior independent of input order.

Consider the recurrence relation for expected comparisons: E(n) = n-1 + (1/n) * Σ(E(i) + E(n-1-i)) for i from 0 to n-1.

Use linearity of expectation to model the probability that any pair of elements is compared during the sorting process, then sum these probabilities to derive the expected total comparisons.