Level Order Traversal of Binary Tree

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Problem Statement

Given the root of a binary tree, display the node values at each level. Node values for all levels should be displayed on separate lines. Let’s take a look at the below binary tree.

widget

Level order traversal for this tree should look like:

  • 100
  • 50, 200
  • 25, 75, 350

Hint

  • Breadth first traversal

Try it yourself

string level_order_traversal(BinaryTreeNode* root) {
string result = "";
//TODO: Write - Your - Code
return result;
}

Solution

// Using two queues
void level_order_traversal_1(BinaryTreeNode* root) {
if (root == nullptr) {
return;
}
queue<BinaryTreeNode*> queues[2];
queue<BinaryTreeNode*>* current_queue = &queues[0];
queue<BinaryTreeNode*>* next_queue = &queues[1];
current_queue->push(root);
int level_number = 0;
while (!current_queue->empty()) {
BinaryTreeNode* temp = current_queue->front();
current_queue->pop();
cout << temp->data << ",";
if (temp->left != nullptr) {
next_queue->push(temp->left);
}
if (temp->right != nullptr) {
next_queue->push(temp->right);
}
if (current_queue->empty()) {
cout << endl;
++level_number;
current_queue = &queues[level_number % 2];
next_queue = &queues[(level_number + 1) % 2];
}
}
cout << endl;
}
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
BinaryTreeNode* root = create_random_BST(15);
level_order_traversal_1(root);
cout << endl;
cout << "Inorder = ";
display_inorder(root);
}

Solution Explanation

Runtime Complexity

The runtime complexity of this solution is linear, O(n).

Memory Complexity

The memory complexity of this solution is linear, O(n).


Solution Breakdown

Here, you are using two queues: current_queue and next_queue. You push the nodes in both queues alternately based on the current level number.

You’ll dequeue nodes from the current_queue, print the node’s data, and enqueue the node’s children to the next_queue. Once the current_queue becomes empty, you have processed all nodes for the current level_number. To indicate the new level, print a line break (’\n’), swap the two queues, and continue with the above-mentioned logic.

After printing the leaf nodes from the current_queue, swap current_queue and next_queue. Since the current_queue would be empty, you can terminate the loop.

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