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0098 - Validate Binary Search Tree (Medium)

https://leetcode.com/problems/validate-binary-search-tree/

Problem Statement

Given the root of a binary tree, determine if it is a valid binary search tree (BST).

A valid BST is defined as follows:

The left subtree of a node contains only nodes with keys less than the node's key. The right subtree of a node contains only nodes with keys greater than the node's key. Both the left and right subtrees must also be binary search trees.

Example 1:

Input: root = [2,1,3]
Output: true

Example 2:

Input: root = [5,1,4,null,null,3,6]
Output: false
Explanation: The root node's value is 5 but its right child's value is 4.

Constraints

  • The number of nodes in the tree is in the range [1, 104].
  • -231<=Node.val<=23112^31 <= Node.val <= 2 ^ 31 - 1

Approach 1: Preorder Traversal

Time Complexity: O(n)O(n)

Space Complexity: O(n)O(n) for recursive stack space

Written by @dhanu084
class Solution:
def isValidBST(self, root: Optional[TreeNode]) -> bool:

def validate(root, left, right):
if root is None:
return True
# Validate the condition for each subtree
if root.val <= left or root.val >= right:
return False
# all subtrees left of root should be less than right so pass root.val as right
left = validate(root.left, left, root.val)
# all subtrees right of root should be greater than right so pass root.val as left
right = validate(root.right, root.val, right)
# only if left and right subtrees are valid return true
return left and right
# pass -inf as the left minimum and inf as right maximum initially
return validate(root, -inf, inf)