Depth-first Search - Applications

Applications

Algorithms that use depth-first search as a building block include:

• Finding connected components.
• Topological sorting.
• Finding 2-(edge or vertex)-connected components.
• Finding 3-(edge or vertex)-connected components.
• Finding the bridges of a graph.
• Finding strongly connected components.
• Planarity testing
• Solving puzzles with only one solution, such as mazes. (DFS can be adapted to find all solutions to a maze by only including nodes on the current path in the visited set.)
• Maze generation may use a randomized depth-first search.
• Finding biconnectivity in graphs.