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Run Breadth-first search separately in every component of the undirected graph. Give a starting vertex colour zero and each newly discovered neighbour the opposite colour. Reject if an edge joins two vertices with the same assigned colour; otherwise accept after all components have been explored.

If the algorithm accepts, its assignments constitute a graph colouring with two colours. If it rejects, the two search-tree paths and the conflicting edge contain an odd cycle, on which alternating two colours cannot close consistently. Equivalently, a valid graph colouring with two colours fixes the parity of every path from a component's root, so the detected conflict is impossible in a two-colourable graph. The Breadth-first search work is $O(|V|+|E|)$ with adjacency lists. ThereforeThis is also the two-colourability criterion for bipartite graphs.

Factor the proposed polynomial:In particular,By the two-colourability criterion for bipartite graphs, every finite bipartite graph has at least one proper two-colouring, so its chromatic polynomial is positive at $2$. Therefore $f$ cannot be the chromatic polynomial of a bipartite graph.

It is nevertheless a chromatic polynomial. Start with the complete graph $K_3$, whose vertices may be coloured inways, and attach one leaf to any vertex. After the triangle is coloured, the leaf has $t-1$ available colours. The chromatic polynomial after attaching a leaf therefore gives