There are two broad categories of sorting methods based on merging: internal merge sort and external merge sort. Internal merge sort handles small lists that fit into primary memory, including simple merge sort and two-way merge sort. External merge sort is for very large lists that exceed primary memory, including balanced two-way merge sort and multi-way merge sort. The simple merge sort uses a divide-and-conquer approach to recursively split lists in half, sort each sublist, and then merge the sorted sublists.