Introduction to Binary Search Trees
Explore the fundamentals of binary search trees (BSTs) including their structure where each node has at most two children with ordered values. Understand how BSTs enable efficient searching, insertion, deletion, and data retrieval in sorted order. Learn why maintaining tree balance is crucial for optimal performance and how BSTs differ from regular binary trees in search efficiency.
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A binary tree is a data structure where each node has at most two children: a left child and a right child.
A binary search tree (BST) is a special type of binary tree that maintains an ordering rule:
All values in the left subtree are smaller than the node.
All values in the right subtree are greater than or equal to the node.
This rule applies recursively to every node.
For example, if the root is