Depth-First Search (Recursive)

Visit a start vertex, then recurse into its first unvisited neighbour all the way down before backtracking. A visited set prevents revisiting, and neighbour insertion order fixes the visit sequence.

Algorithm

On the canonical 6-vertex graph from graph-adjacency-list, starting at vertex 1, the deterministic visit order is [1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 6]. Calls unwind 6 -> 5 -> 4 -> 3 -> 2 -> 1 after all vertices are visited.

Basic Implementation

basic.swift

var adj: [Int: [Int]] = [:]
adj[1] = [2, 3]
adj[2] = [1, 4]
adj[3] = [1, 4]
adj[4] = [2, 3, 5]
adj[5] = [4, 6]
adj[6] = [5]
var visited: Set<Int> = []
var order: [Int] = []
func dfs(_ v: Int) {
	visited.insert(v)
	order.append(v)
	for nb in adj[v]! {
		if !visited.contains(nb) {
			dfs(nb)
		}
	}
}
dfs(1)
print(order)

Complexity

Time: O(V + E)
Space: O(V) recursion depth

Implementation notes

Swift: a recursive dfs function captures the global visited set and order array; print renders the array.
The replay shows the current vertex, the visited set, and the running visit order after each entry, matching the lesson spec.

recursive descent Follow one branch to its end, then unwind and try the next neighbour.