Number of Connected Components in an Undirected Graph
Understand how to determine the number of connected components in an undirected graph given nodes and edges. This lesson guides you to apply graph traversal and Union Find techniques to solve the problem efficiently, reinforcing your algorithmic problem-solving skills for coding interviews.
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Statement
For a given integer, n, and an array, edges, return the number of connected components in a graph containing n nodes.
Note: The array
edges[i] = [x, y]indicates that there’s an edge betweenxandyin the graph.
Constraints:
nedges.lengthedges[i].lengthxynxyThere are no repeated edges.
Examples
Understand the problem
Let’s take a moment to make sure you’ve correctly understood the problem. The quiz below helps you check if you’re solving the correct problem:
Number of Connected Components in an Undirected Graph
What could be the number of connected components if the following values are given as input?
n = 5
edges = [[0, 1], [3, 4]]
2
3
1
Try it yourself
Implement your solution in main.cpp in the following coding playground. You will need the provided supporting code to implement your solution.
Note: To solve this problem, you may need to change the implementation of the functions in the given Union Find class.
An optimal solution to this problem runs in O(E + V) time and takes O(V) space.
#include "UnionFind.cpp"int CountComponents(int n, vector<vector<int>> edges){// Replace this placeholder return statement with your codereturn 1;}