236. Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree LeetCode Solution
In this guide, you will get 236. Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree LeetCode Solution with the best time and space complexity. The solution to Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree problem is provided in various programming languages like C++, Java, and Python. This will be helpful for you if you are preparing for placements, hackathons, interviews, or practice purposes. The solutions provided here are very easy to follow and include detailed explanations.
Problem Statement of Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree
Given a binary tree, find the lowest common ancestor (LCA) of two given nodes in the tree.
According to the definition of LCA on Wikipedia: “The lowest common ancestor is defined between two nodes p and q as the lowest node in T that has both p and q as descendants (where we allow a node to be a descendant of itself).”
Example 1:
Input: root = [3,5,1,6,2,0,8,null,null,7,4], p = 5, q = 1
Output: 3
Explanation: The LCA of nodes 5 and 1 is 3.
Example 2:
Input: root = [3,5,1,6,2,0,8,null,null,7,4], p = 5, q = 4
Output: 5
Explanation: The LCA of nodes 5 and 4 is 5, since a node can be a descendant of itself according to the LCA definition.
Example 3:
Input: root = [1,2], p = 1, q = 2
Output: 1
Constraints:
The number of nodes in the tree is in the range [2, 105].
-109 <= Node.val <= 109
All Node.val are unique.
p != q
p and q will exist in the tree.
236. Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree LeetCode Solution in C++
class Solution {
public:
TreeNode* lowestCommonAncestor(TreeNode* root, TreeNode* p, TreeNode* q) {
if (root == nullptr || root == p || root == q)
return root;
TreeNode* left = lowestCommonAncestor(root->left, p, q);
TreeNode* right = lowestCommonAncestor(root->right, p, q);
if (left != nullptr && right != nullptr)
return root;
return left == nullptr ? right : left;
}
}; /* code provided by PROGIEZ */
236. Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree LeetCode Solution in Java
class Solution {
public TreeNode lowestCommonAncestor(TreeNode root, TreeNode p, TreeNode q) {
if (root == null || root == p || root == q)
return root;
TreeNode left = lowestCommonAncestor(root.left, p, q);
TreeNode right = lowestCommonAncestor(root.right, p, q);
if (left != null && right != null)
return root;
return left == null ? right : left;
}
} // code provided by PROGIEZ
236. Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree LeetCode Solution in Python
class Solution:
def lowestCommonAncestor(
self,
root: 'TreeNode',
p: 'TreeNode',
q: 'TreeNode',
) -> 'TreeNode':
if not root or root == p or root == q:
return root
left = self.lowestCommonAncestor(root.left, p, q)
right = self.lowestCommonAncestor(root.right, p, q)
if left and right:
return root
return left or right # code by PROGIEZ
