An interactive data structure and algorithm visualization tool built for CSE 250 at the University at Buffalo. Explore 57 algorithms through step-by-step canvas animations, pseudocode walkthroughs, and Big O analysis.
Live site: cse.buffalo.edu/structstudio
- 57 visualizations spanning lists, trees, sorting, hashing, graphs, string matching, and dynamic programming
- Step-through animations with play, pause, step forward, step back, and adjustable speed controls
- Sidebar reference panel with three tabs per algorithm:
- About — description, operations, and use cases
- Pseudocode — line-by-line highlighting synchronized with the animation
- Big O — best, average, and worst case complexity breakdowns
- Dark theme interface with canvas color remapping
| Graph algorithms | Sorting algorithms |
|---|---|
 |
 |
| Dijkstra's shortest path, stepping through the priority queue and distance map live | Quicksort partitioning, tracking pivot choice, pointers, comparisons, and swaps |
- Node.js (LTS recommended)
- npm (included with Node.js)
git clone https://github.com/JoshuaCongHu/dsa-visualizer.git
cd dsa-visualizer
npm installnpm startOpen http://localhost:3000 in your browser.
npm run buildThe optimized output is written to the build/ directory.
Development happens on your laptop and is pushed to GitHub. The university web server (cerf) hosts the app at /shared/web/structstudio/ — that directory contains both the git checkout and the files Apache serves. To update the live site, SSH into cerf and run ./deploy.sh; the script pulls the latest commit, rebuilds, and overlays the built files in place.
One-time setup on cerf:
cd /shared/web/structstudio
git clone https://github.com/JoshuaCongHu/dsa-visualizer.git .
npm install
chmod +x deploy.shTo update:
./deploy.sh| Category | Algorithms |
|---|---|
| Lists | ArrayList, LinkedList, DoublyLinkedList, CircularlyLinkedList, StackArray, StackLL, QueueArray, QueueLL, DequeArray, DequeLL |
| Trees | BST, AVL, Red-Black Tree, B-Tree, Splay Tree, Skip List, TreeMap |
| Sorting | BubbleSort, CocktailSort, InsertionSort, SelectionSort, QuickSort, QuickSelect, MergeSort, HeapSort, LSD Radix Sort |
| Hashing | Open Hashing, Closed Hashing |
| Heaps | Min/Max Heap |
| Graphs | BFS, DFS, Dijkstra, Prim, Kruskal, Floyd-Warshall, Disjoint Set, Create Graph |
| Strings | Brute Force, Boyer-Moore, KMP, Rabin-Karp |
| Dynamic Programming | LCS |
- React 18 — component architecture and state management
- Tailwind CSS 3 — utility-first styling
- Material-UI 5 — UI components
- HTML5 Canvas — custom animation engine for all visualizations
src/
├── algo/ # Algorithm implementations (one file per algorithm)
├── anim/ # Canvas animation engine
├── components/ # Reusable UI components
├── screens/ # Top-level page components
├── css/ # Stylesheets and CSS custom properties
├── pseudocode.json # Pseudocode content for sidebar tab
└── time_complexities.json # Big O content for sidebar tab
See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, project structure details, and pull request guidelines.
Co-developed with Amaan Sheikh — see the About page for the full team and project background.
Built on the visualization framework originally created by David Galles at the University of San Francisco, with subsequent contributions by Rodrigo Pontes at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
BSD 2-Clause. See LICENSE.md for details.