Maximal and

Maximum Clique
in a Graph
Eman Amir BCSM-F20-296
Presented to: Prof. Saleem Mustafa
Clique

A clique is a complete subgraph of a

given graph. This means that all nodes
in the said subgraph are directly
connected to each other, or there is
an edge between any two nodes in the
subgraph.
In the given graph Two cliques will be formed:

1. 1->2->3

2. 3->4->5
Maximal Clique

Def:
A maximal clique is a clique that cannot be extended by including one more
adjacent vertex, meaning it is not a subset of a larger clique.
Applications:
Maximal cliques are important in graph-theoretic applications
1. Including graph coloring
2. Fractional graph coloring
Example

1 Clique that is formed is a->b->c

2 They all are adjacent to each
other
3
Now we will add f to the clique
4
Now lets if it form a maximal
clique it will form a->b->c->f
Example

• Clique that is formed is a->b->c->f

• To check if it’s maximal its 1 vertices edges

must be equal to and others can be greater to or
can be equal to

E=Total vertices - 1

• T.V=4 E=4-1=>3

• Edges of a = 3, Edges of b = 5, Edges of c = 4,

Edges of f = 3

• So it formed a maximal clique

Example

• If we add d vertex in it does not form a maximal

clique

• So d is not adjacent to a and f so it will not form

a maximal clique

E=Total vertices - 1

• T.V=5 E=5-1=>4

• Edges of a = 3, Edges of b = 5, Edges of c = 4,

Edges of f = 3 , Edges of d = 3

• So it does not formed a maximal clique

Maximum Clique

Def:
A maximum clique in a graph G is a clique with as many or more vertices
than any other clique in G. It is a clique such that no other clique in the
graph has more vertices.
Important point
By definition, every maximum clique is maximal, but not every maximal
clique is maximum. We will see an example of a maximal clique that is not
a maximum clique.
Example

• The maximal cliques that are formed in

this graph are

1. a->b->c->f (4 vertices)

2. b->c->d (3 vertices)

3. b->e->d (3 vertices)

• The vertex that has the highest number of

vertices is a->b->c->f so it is a maximum
clique
Thank You!