Here are the key steps to multiply two large integers efficiently:
1. Use a divide-and-conquer approach called the Karatsuba algorithm. It recursively breaks the multiplication into smaller subproblems.
2. On inputs of size n, the Karatsuba algorithm uses 3 multiplications of size approximately n/2 instead of the 4 multiplications of the grade school method.
3. This reduction saves a multiplicative factor, resulting in an asymptotic running time of O(n^{log_2 3}) ≈ O(n^{1.585}), which is faster than the O(n^2) time of the grade school method.
4. The main idea is to express the products of