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Summary - BFS

Run BFS on a graph and print the order in a mini task.

Summary - BFS

BFS is layer-by-layer search using a queue, a visited set and a neighbor loop. It yields the shortest step count.

In this mini task you will run BFS and print the visit order; combine all the pieces.

BFS discovers all reachable vertices in layer order; this is ideal for shortest path.

Practice Print BFS

Write bfs_print(graph, start). Print the BFS visit order with print(). Output: [0, 1, 2, 3].

Starter code

solution.py
def bfs_print(graph, start):
    # Print BFS order

Sample solution

solution.py
def bfs_print(graph, start):
    # Print BFS order
    visited = []
    queue = [start]
    while queue:
        node = queue.pop(0)
        if node not in visited:
            visited.append(node)
            for nb in graph[node]:
                if nb not in visited:
                    queue.append(nb)
    print(visited)
bfs_print({0: [1, 2], 1: [0, 3], 2: [0, 3], 3: [1, 2]}, 0)

Expected output

[0, 1, 2, 3]

Questions and answers

Review the lesson questions together with their answers. To test yourself, solve the lesson interactively.

1 Summary - BFS: match the terms

Term Meaning
BFS Queue
layer Step
visited No repeat
neighbor Loop

2 Loop condition

Question 
while ____:
Answer 
while queue:

Explanation: queue is right.

3 What is BFS's time complexity?

  • O(log V)
  • O(V * E)
  • O(V^2)
  • O(V + E) Correct answer

Explanation: O(V + E).

All lessons in Intermediate

1 Merge sort

  1. Divide and conquer
  2. Merge operation
  3. Full merge sort
  4. Summary - Merge sort

2 Quick sort

  1. Pivot selection
  2. Partitioning
  3. Recursive quick sort
  4. Summary - Quick sort

3 Heap sort

  1. What is a heap?
  2. Heapify
  3. Build heap and sort
  4. Summary - Heap sort

4 Counting sort

  1. Counting idea
  2. Count array
  3. Output array
  4. Summary - Counting sort

5 Radix sort

  1. Radix idea
  2. Digit pass
  3. Stable sub-sort
  4. Summary - Radix sort

6 Sorting project

  1. Project: Overview
  2. Score array
  3. Apply merge sort
  4. Print statistics

7 Tree

  1. What is a tree?
  2. Node and edge
  3. Binary tree
  4. Summary - Trees

8 Binary search tree

  1. BST rule
  2. BST insert
  3. BST search
  4. Summary - BST

9 AVL tree

  1. Balanced tree
  2. Rotation
  3. Balance after insert
  4. Summary - AVL tree

10 Heap

  1. Min and max heap
  2. Insert
  3. Extract
  4. Summary - Heap

11 Priority queue

  1. What is a priority queue?
  2. Heap-based implementation
  3. Push and pop
  4. Summary - Priority queue

12 Data structures project

  1. Project: Overview
  2. Undo stack
  3. Pending queue
  4. Print the state

13 Graph basics

  1. What is a graph?
  2. Adjacency list
  3. Adjacency matrix
  4. Summary - Graph

14 Breadth-first search

  1. BFS idea
  2. Using a queue
  3. Marking visited
  4. Summary - BFS

15 Depth-first search

  1. DFS idea
  2. Stack or recursion
  3. Backtracking
  4. Summary - DFS

16 Greedy algorithms

  1. Greedy approach
  2. Coin change
  3. Greedy limits
  4. Summary - Greedy

17 Divide and conquer

  1. Three steps
  2. Recursive structure
  3. Master theorem
  4. Summary - Divide and conquer

18 Backtracking

  1. What is backtracking?
  2. State tree
  3. Pruning
  4. Summary - Backtracking

19 Graph project

  1. Project: Overview
  2. City graph
  3. BFS for reachability
  4. Print the result

20 Intermediate final

  1. Challenge 1
  2. Challenge 2
  3. Challenge 3
  4. Challenge 4