Which data structure would you use to implement a breadth-first search (BFS)?
Practice Questions
Q1
Which data structure would you use to implement a breadth-first search (BFS)?
Stack
Queue
Linked List
Array
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
Which data structure would you use to implement a breadth-first search (BFS)?
Step 1: Understand what breadth-first search (BFS) is. It is a way to explore nodes in a graph or tree level by level.
Step 2: Know that BFS starts at a root node and explores all its neighbors before moving to the next level.
Step 3: Realize that to keep track of which nodes to explore next, we need a way to store them in the order they are discovered.
Step 4: Learn that a queue is a data structure that follows the First In, First Out (FIFO) principle, meaning the first element added is the first one to be removed.
Step 5: Conclude that using a queue allows BFS to process nodes in the correct order, ensuring that all nodes at the current level are explored before moving to the next level.
