What are the differences between iterative and recursive BFS?

What are the differences between iterative and recursive BFS?

Iterative BFS uses a queue to explore nodes level by level, while recursive BFS uses function calls to achieve the same.

Can you explain how the iterative approach works?

Sure! In iterative BFS, you start with a queue initialized with the root node, then repeatedly dequeue a node, visit it, and enqueue its unvisited neighbors.

What about the recursive approach? How does that function?

In recursive BFS, you typically use a helper function that processes the current node and calls itself for each unvisited neighbor, effectively simulating the queue.

Which approach is more efficient?

Both approaches have similar time complexity, O(V + E), but iterative BFS is generally more space-efficient since it avoids the overhead of recursive calls.