In Selection Sort, what is the minimum number of comparisons required to find the smallest element and place it in the first position of the array?

In Selection Sort, the minimum number of comparisons required to find the smallest element and place it in the first position of the array is n-1, where n is the number of elements in the array.

Here are the steps:

1. Start from the first element in the array, consider it as the smallest.
2. Compare this element with the next element in the array.
3. If the next element is smaller than the current smallest element, update the smallest element.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for all elements in the array.
5. After all comparisons, the smallest element is found. Swap it with the first element of the array.
6. Now, the smallest element is at the first position of the array.

So, for an array of n elements, we need to make n-1 comparisons to find the smallest element and place it in the first position.