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Data Structures for Coding Interviews in C#

Solution Review: Finding Minimum Value in a Binary Search Tree

Learn how to find the minimum value in a binary search tree using both iterative and recursive approaches. Understand the step-by-step process and analyze the time complexity, focusing on left-skewed trees and their impact on efficiency.

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Solution #1: Iterative findMin() #

C#
using System;
namespace chapter_6
{
    class Solution
    {
        static public int findMin(Node rootNode)
        {
            // Traverse (in order) towards left till you reach leaf node,
            //and then return leaf node's value
            if (rootNode == null)
                return -1;
            while (rootNode.leftChild != null)
            {
                rootNode = rootNode.leftChild;
            }
            return rootNode.value;
        }
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            BinarySearchTree bsT = new BinarySearchTree(6);
            bsT.insertBST(3);
            bsT.insertBST(8);
            bsT.insertBST(12);
            bsT.insertBST(10);
            bsT.insertBST(14);
           Console.WriteLine(findMin(bsT.getRoot()));
            return;
        }
    }
}

This solution first checks if the given root is null and returns -1 if it is (lines 10-11). Then, you move on to the left-subtree. Keep going to each node’s left child until the leftmost child is found (lines 13-16).

Time complexity

The time complexity of this solution is in O(h)O(h) ...