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DSA9 min readJun 10, 2026

Graph Traversals Visualized

Deconstruct node processing orders in BFS and DFS grids with visual coordinate mapping.

Depth First Search (DFS) and Breadth First Search (BFS) are the fundamental algorithms used to traverse trees and graphs. In a grid layout, DFS uses a recursion stack to deep-dive into paths, while BFS uses a queue to expand outward layer-by-layer.

DFS Grid Code Structure

pythonEditor
def dfs(grid, r, c, visited):
    if r < 0 or r >= len(grid) or c < 0 or c >= len(grid[0]):
        return
    if grid[r][c] == 0 or (r, c) in visited:
        return
        
    visited.add((r, c))
    # Traverse neighbors (Up, Down, Left, Right)
    dfs(grid, r-1, c, visited)
    dfs(grid, r+1, c, visited)
    dfs(grid, r, c-1, visited)
    dfs(grid, r, c+1, visited)

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