Finding Strong Components Using Depth-First Search

TL;DR

This paper reviews three linear-time algorithms that utilize depth-first search to identify strong components in directed graphs, providing insights into their mechanisms and efficiencies.

Contribution

It presents a comparative survey of Tarjan's, cycle-finding, and bidirectional algorithms for strong component detection using depth-first search.

Findings

All three algorithms operate in linear time.

They differ in implementation and practical efficiency.

The survey clarifies their relative advantages.

Abstract

We survey three algorithms that use depth-first search to find the strong components of a directed graph in linear time: (1) Tarjan's algorithm; (2) a cycle-finding algorithm; and (3) a bidirectional search algorithm.