What is the time complexity of depth-first search (DFS) in a graph?

Practice Questions

Q1
What is the time complexity of depth-first search (DFS) in a graph?
  1. O(V)
  2. O(E)
  3. O(V + E)
  4. O(V^2)

Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions

What is the time complexity of depth-first search (DFS) in a graph?
  • Step 1: Understand that a graph consists of vertices (points) and edges (connections between points).
  • Step 2: Recognize that depth-first search (DFS) is an algorithm used to explore all the vertices and edges in a graph.
  • Step 3: Note that during the DFS process, each vertex is visited once.
  • Step 4: Also note that each edge is traversed once when moving from one vertex to another.
  • Step 5: Count the total number of vertices in the graph, denoted as V.
  • Step 6: Count the total number of edges in the graph, denoted as E.
  • Step 7: Combine the visits to vertices and edges to find the total time taken by DFS, which is V (for vertices) + E (for edges).
  • Step 8: Conclude that the time complexity of DFS is O(V + E).
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