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Solution: Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree

Understand how to identify the lowest common ancestor of two nodes in a binary tree by using depth-first search. Learn the recursive approach to check subtrees and conditions that determine the ancestor node. Explore the algorithm's time and space complexity and how to optimize recursive calls for efficient problem solving.

Statement

Given the root node of a binary tree with nn nodes, your task is to find the lowest common ancestor of two of its nodes, p and q.

Note: The lowest common ancestor of two nodes, p and q, is defined as the lowest node in the binary tree that has both p and q as descendants.

A node can also be a descendant of itself. For example, if q is a descendant of p, and we know that p is a descendant of itself, then p will be the lowest common ancestor of p and q.

Constraints:

  • 2n5002 \leq n \leq 500
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