Graphs · Discovery & exploration

BFS & DFS Graph Explorer

Follow how a queue drives breadth-first search and how recursive calls drive depth-first search. Both methods use the same graph and alphabetical neighbor order. Discovery and completion are separate events; Back lets you revisit any decision.

Vertices

Graph preset

Directed edges

Edges (A-B, A-C; directed: A-B means A → B)

Traversal

Start vertex

Continue across disconnected components

Changing traversal settings prepares a fresh run on this graph. Apply edges after editing. Reset replays the same run.

Playback speed · slow → fast

Graph

Discovered / frontierActive vertexFinished

Blue edges form the traversal forest; the orange edge is being examined. Directed edges follow arrowheads.

Current step

Queue · front → back

Discovery order

Completion order

Reached: Edges examined:

Traversal record

Vertex	Parent	BFS distance / DFS depth	State

BFS distances are shortest edge counts from each component root in an unweighted graph. DFS depth describes the call tree and is not generally a shortest distance. Adjacency-list traversal takes Θ(V + E) for a complete traversal; each undirected edge is examined from both endpoints.