236. Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree

Description

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.

Solutions

Solution 1: Recursion

We recursively traverse the binary tree:

If the current node is null or equals to \(p\) or \(q\), then we return the current node;

Otherwise, we recursively traverse the left and right subtrees, and record the returned results as \(left\) and \(right\). If both \(left\) and \(right\) are not null, it means that \(p\) and \(q\) are in the left and right subtrees respectively, so the current node is the nearest common ancestor; If only one of \(left\) and \(right\) is not null, we return the one that is not null.

The time complexity is \(O(n)\), and the space complexity is \(O(n)\). Here, \(n\) is the number of nodes in the binary tree.

Python3JavaC++GoTypeScriptRustJavaScript

# Definition for a binary tree node.
# class TreeNode:
#     def __init__(self, x):
#         self.val = x
#         self.left = None
#         self.right = None


class Solution:
    def lowestCommonAncestor(
        self, root: "TreeNode", p: "TreeNode", q: "TreeNode"
    ) -> "TreeNode":
        if root in (None, p, q):
            return root
        left = self.lowestCommonAncestor(root.left, p, q)
        right = self.lowestCommonAncestor(root.right, p, q)
        return root if left and right else (left or right)

/**
 * Definition for a binary tree node.
 * public class TreeNode {
 *     int val;
 *     TreeNode left;
 *     TreeNode right;
 *     TreeNode(int x) { val = x; }
 * }
 */
class Solution {
    public TreeNode lowestCommonAncestor(TreeNode root, TreeNode p, TreeNode q) {
        if (root == null || root == p || root == q) {
            return root;
        }
        var left = lowestCommonAncestor(root.left, p, q);
        var right = lowestCommonAncestor(root.right, p, q);
        if (left != null && right != null) {
            return root;
        }
        return left == null ? right : left;
    }
}

/**
 * Definition for a binary tree node.
 * struct TreeNode {
 *     int val;
 *     TreeNode *left;
 *     TreeNode *right;
 *     TreeNode(int x) : val(x), left(NULL), right(NULL) {}
 * };
 */
class Solution {
public:
    TreeNode* lowestCommonAncestor(TreeNode* root, TreeNode* p, TreeNode* q) {
        if (root == nullptr || root == p || root == q) {
            return root;
        }
        auto left = lowestCommonAncestor(root->left, p, q);
        auto right = lowestCommonAncestor(root->right, p, q);
        if (left && right) {
            return root;
        }
        return left ? left : right;
    }
};

/**
 * Definition for a binary tree node.
 * type TreeNode struct {
 *     Val int
 *     Left *TreeNode
 *     Right *TreeNode
 * }
 */
func lowestCommonAncestor(root, p, q *TreeNode) *TreeNode {
    if root == nil || root == p || root == q {
        return root
    }
    left := lowestCommonAncestor(root.Left, p, q)
    right := lowestCommonAncestor(root.Right, p, q)
    if left != nil && right != nil {
        return root
    }
    if left != nil {
        return left
    }
    return right
}

/**
 * Definition for a binary tree node.
 * class TreeNode {
 *     val: number
 *     left: TreeNode | null
 *     right: TreeNode | null
 *     constructor(val?: number, left?: TreeNode | null, right?: TreeNode | null) {
 *         this.val = (val===undefined ? 0 : val)
 *         this.left = (left===undefined ? null : left)
 *         this.right = (right===undefined ? null : right)
 *     }
 * }
 */

function lowestCommonAncestor(
    root: TreeNode | null,
    p: TreeNode | null,
    q: TreeNode | null,
): TreeNode | null {
    if (!root || root === p || root === q) {
        return root;
    }
    const left = lowestCommonAncestor(root.left, p, q);
    const right = lowestCommonAncestor(root.right, p, q);
    return left && right ? root : left || right;
}

// Definition for a binary tree node.
// #[derive(Debug, PartialEq, Eq)]
// pub struct TreeNode {
//   pub val: i32,
//   pub left: Option<Rc<RefCell<TreeNode>>>,
//   pub right: Option<Rc<RefCell<TreeNode>>>,
// }
//
// impl TreeNode {
//   #[inline]
//   pub fn new(val: i32) -> Self {
//     TreeNode {
//       val,
//       left: None,
//       right: None
//     }
//   }
// }
use std::cell::RefCell;
use std::rc::Rc;
impl Solution {
    pub fn lowest_common_ancestor(
        root: Option<Rc<RefCell<TreeNode>>>,
        p: Option<Rc<RefCell<TreeNode>>>,
        q: Option<Rc<RefCell<TreeNode>>>,
    ) -> Option<Rc<RefCell<TreeNode>>> {
        if root.is_none() || root == p || root == q {
            return root;
        }
        let left = Self::lowest_common_ancestor(
            root.as_ref().unwrap().borrow().left.clone(),
            p.clone(),
            q.clone(),
        );
        let right = Self::lowest_common_ancestor(
            root.as_ref().unwrap().borrow().right.clone(),
            p.clone(),
            q.clone(),
        );
        if left.is_some() && right.is_some() {
            return root;
        }
        if left.is_none() {
            return right;
        }
        return left;
    }
}

/**
 * Definition for a binary tree node.
 * function TreeNode(val) {
 *     this.val = val;
 *     this.left = this.right = null;
 * }
 */
/**
 * @param {TreeNode} root
 * @param {TreeNode} p
 * @param {TreeNode} q
 * @return {TreeNode}
 */
var lowestCommonAncestor = function (root, p, q) {
    if (!root || root === p || root === q) {
        return root;
    }
    const left = lowestCommonAncestor(root.left, p, q);
    const right = lowestCommonAncestor(root.right, p, q);
    return left && right ? root : left || right;
};

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