What is the height of a binary tree with n nodes in the worst case?
Practice Questions
Q1
What is the height of a binary tree with n nodes in the worst case?
O(log n)
O(n)
O(n log n)
O(1)
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
What is the height of a binary tree with n nodes in the worst case?
Step 1: Understand what a binary tree is. A binary tree is a data structure where each node has at most two children.
Step 2: Know what height means. The height of a tree is the number of edges on the longest path from the root to a leaf.
Step 3: Consider the worst-case scenario. The worst case for a binary tree occurs when it is skewed, meaning all nodes are arranged in a straight line.
Step 4: In a skewed binary tree, each node has only one child. This means if there are n nodes, the height will be n - 1 (since the height is counted by edges).
Step 5: Therefore, in big O notation, we say the height is O(n) in the worst case.