Solution: Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree
Explore the process of identifying the lowest common ancestor of two nodes in a binary tree. This lesson guides you through a depth-first search approach, explains recursive traversal, and helps you understand how to determine the ancestor efficiently by tracking nodes. You'll gain insights into the algorithm's time and space complexities, enhancing your problem-solving skills with tree data structures.
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Statement
Given the root node of a binary tree with 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,
pandq, is defined as the lowest node in the binary tree that has bothpandqas descendants.A node can also be a descendant of itself. For example, if
qis a descendant ofp, and we know thatpis a descendant of itself, thenpwill be the lowest common ancestor ofpandq.
Constraints:
- All
Node.dataare unique. p