Sorting Comparator Networks

I’m currently studying for Silver, and right now, I’m looking at problems involving sorting. Do I need to know about sorting networks and fundamnetals (e.c. zero one principle) to get to gold, or can I just do a bunch of problems involving sorting to rationalize how to use the algorithms when problem solving? Thanks.

I don’t recall the 0-1 principle being useful for any USACO Silver problems besides Out of Sorts: USACO