Graphs
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.
recursive descent
Follow one branch to its end, then unwind and try the next neighbour.
Visual walkthrough
Basic Implementation
basic.ts
const adj: Map<number, number[]> = new Map([
[1, [2, 3]],
[2, [1, 4]],
[3, [1, 4]],
[4, [2, 3, 5]],
[5, [4, 6]],
[6, [5]],
]);
const visited: Set<number> = new Set();
const order: number[] = [];
function dfs(v: number): void {
visited.add(v);
order.push(v);
for (const nb of adj.get(v)!) {
if (!visited.has(nb)) {
dfs(nb);
}
}
}
dfs(1);
console.log(JSON.stringify(order));
Complexity
- Time: O(V + E)
- Space: O(V) recursion depth
Implementation notes
- TypeScript: a recursive
dfscloses over the sharedvisitedSet andorderarray. - The replay shows the current vertex, the visited set, and the running visit order after each entry, matching the lesson spec.