Top Binary Tree Interview Questions & Answers:-

1) What is a leaf node?

ANSWER :-
Any node in a binary tree or a tree that does not have
any children is called a leaf node.

2) What is a root node?

ANSWER :-
The first node or the top node in a tree is called the root
node.

3) How do you find the lowest common ancestor (LCA)

of a binary tree in Java?
ANSWER :-
Let us consider two nodes n1 and n2 that are part of a
binary tree.
The lowest common ancestor (LCA) of n1 and n2 is the
shared ancestor of n1 and n2 that is located farthest from
the root.
You can follow the following method to find the LCA.
1.a) Find a path from the root node to n1 and store it in
an array.
2.b) Find a path from the root node to n2 and store it in
an array.
3.c) Traverse both paths until the value is the same in
both the arrays.

4) How do you check if a given binary tree is a subtree

of another binary tree?
ANSWER :-
Consider we have a binary tree T. We now want to check
if a binary tree S is a subtree of T.
To do this, first, try to check if you find a node in T that is
also in S.
Once you find this common node, check if the following
nodes are also a part of S.
If yes, we can safely say that S is a subtree of T.

5) How do you find the distance between two nodes in a

binary tree?
ANSWER :-
Consider two nodes n1 and n2 that are part of a binary
tree.
The distance between n1 and n2 is equal to the minimum
number of edges that need to be traversed to reach from
one node to the other.
It is important to note that you traverse the shortest
distance between the nodes.

6) What is a binary search tree?

ANSWER :-
A binary search tree (BST) is a special type of binary tree
in which each internal node contains a key. For a binary
search tree, the rule is:
1.a) A node can have a key that is greater than all the
keys in the node’s left subtree.
2.b) A node can have a key that is smaller than all the
keys in the node’s right subtree.
Thus, if n1 is a node that has a key 8, then every node in
the left subtree of n1 will contain keys lesser than 8, and
every node in the right subtree of n1 will contain keys
greater than 8.

7) What is a self-balanced tree?

ANSWER :-
Self-balanced binary search trees automatically keep
their height as small as possible when operations like
insertion and deletion take place.
For a BST to be self-balanced, it is important that it
consistently follows the rules of BST so that the left
subtree has lower-valued keys while the right subtree has
high valued keys.
This is done using two operations:
– Left rotation
– Right rotation

8) What is an AVL tree?

ANSWER :-
The AVL tree is named after its inventors: Adelson, Velski,
and Landis. An AVL tree is a self-balancing binary tree
that checks the height of its left subtree and right subtree
and assures that the difference is not more than 1. This
difference is called the balance factor
Thus, BalanceFactor = height (Left subtree) – height
(Right subtree)
If the balance factor is more than 1, the tree is balanced
using some of the following techniques:
– Left rotation
– Right rotation
– Left-Right rotation
– Right-Right rotation

9) How do you convert a binary tree into a binary search

tree in Java?
ANSWER :-
The main difference between a binary tree and a binary
search tree is that the BST follows the left subtree should
have lower key values and the right subtree should have
higher key values rule. This can be done using a series of
traversal techniques as follows:
1.Create a temporary array that stores the inorder
traversal of the tree
2.Sort the temporary array. You can use any sorting
algorithm here.
3.Again perform an inorder traversal on the tree.
4.Copy the array elements one by one to each tree node.

10) How do you delete a node from a binary search tree

in Java?
ANSWER :-
The deletion operation for a BST can be tricky since its
properties need to be preserved post the operation.
Here’s a look at all three possible cases:
1.Node to be deleted is a leaf node.
Simply remove the node.
2.Node to be removed has one child.
In this case, copy the child to the node and delete the
child.
1.Node to be removed has two children.
In this case, find the inorder successor of the node. You
can then copy its content to the node and delete the
inorder successor.

11) What is the Red-Black tree data structure?

ANSWER :-
The Red-Black tree is a special type of self-balancing tree
that has the following properties:
1.Each node has a colour either red or black.
2.The root is always black.
3.A red node cannot have a red parent or red child.
4.Every path from the root node to a NULL node has the
same number of black nodes.

12) How do you find if two trees are identical?

ANSWER :-
Two binary trees are identical if they have the same data
and arrangement. This can be done by traversing both
trees and comparing their data and arrangements.
Here’s the algorithm that can enable us to do this:
1.Check data of root node ( tree1 data ==tree2 data)
2.Check left subtree recursively. call sameTree( tree1->
left subtree, tree2-> left subtree)
3.Similarly, check right subtree
4.if a,b,c are true, return1

13) What are the types of traversal of binary trees?

ANSWER :-
It is one of the common tree questions. The traversal of a
binary tree has three types. They are discussed below. i)
Inorder tree traversal: In this type, the left subtree is
visited first, then the root, and lastly, the right subtree.
Remember that any node may be a subtree in itself. The
output of this type in sequence generates sorted key
values in ascending order. ii) Preorder tree traversal: In
this type, the root node is first visited, and then the left
subtree is visited. Finally, the right subtree is visited.
iii)Postorder tree traversal: The root node is visited at the
end, and therefore its name is “Postorder tree traversal.
The traversal order is the left subtree, the right subtree,
and then the root node.

14) How are binary trees represented in memory?

ANSWER :-
You must prepare for such binary tree questions to crack
your interview. A small and nearly complete binary tree
can be stored in a linear array. The linear array is used
because a linear array’s search process is costly. You have
to consider the nodes’ positional indexes to store the
binary tree in a linear array. This indexing should be
considered beginning with 1 from the root node and
moving from left to right as you go move from one level
to another. The binary trees are widely used to store
decision trees that represent decisions i.e. true or false,
yes or no, or 0 or 1. They are often used in gaming
applications wherein a player is allowed to take only two
moves.

15) What are the common applications of binary trees?

ANSWER :-
It is one of the trendiest tree questions. Binary trees are
used for classification purposes. A decision tree
represents a supervised machine-learning algorithm. The
binary tree data structure is used to imitate the decision-
making process. Usually, a decision tree starts with a root
node. The internal nodes are dataset features or
conditions. The branches represent decision rules
whereas the leave nodes show the decision’s outcome.
Another major application of binary trees is in expression
evaluation. The binary tree’s leaves are the operands
whereas the internal nodes signify the operators. Binary
trees are also used in database indexing for sorting data
for easy searching, insertion, and deletion.

16) How are binary trees used for sorting?

ANSWER :-
Such binary tree questions denote the versatility of
binary trees. Binary search trees are variants of binary
trees. They used to implement sorting algorithms to
order items. Basically, a binary search tree is a sorted or
ordered binary tree in which the value in the left child is
lesser than that in the parent node. The values in the
right node are more than that in the parent node. The
items to be ordered are first inserted into a binary search
tree to fulfill a sorting process. The tree is traversed via
the in-order traversal to access the sorted items.

17) How are binary trees used for data compression?

ANSWER :-
It is one of the intermediate-level tree questions.
Huffman coding is used to create a binary tree that can
compress data. Data compression encodes data to use
fewer bits. Firstly, Huffman coding builds a binary tree
based on the text to compress. It then inserts the
characters’ encodings in the nodes depending on their
frequency within the text. A character’s encoding is
achieved by traversing the tree from its root to the node.
Recurrently occurring characters will boast a shorter path
than the less occurring characters. The purpose is to
decrease the number of bits for frequent characters and
ascertain maximum data compression.

18) How to handle duplicate nodes in a binary search

tree?
ANSWER :-
It is one of the top 50 tree interview questions because it
specifies your ability to handle binary trees. You can store
the inorder traversal of a specific binary tree in an array
to handle duplicate nodes. Subsequently, you need to
check whether the array includes any duplicates. You can
prevent the use of an array and solve this issue in O(n)
time. Hashing is used for the same. You can traverse the
given tree, for each node to check if it already occurs in
the hash table. The result is true (duplicate found) if it
exists, else you insert it into the hash table.

19) Can binary search be used for the linked list?

ANSWER :-
You can prepare for such top 50 tree interview questions
to easily crack your interviews. Binary search is allowed
on the linked list if you have an ordered list and you know
the number of elements in a list. You can access a single
element at a time via a pointer to that node when sorting
the list. The pointer is either to a previous node or the
next node. Consequently, it increases the traversal steps
for each element in the linked list to search for the
middle element. This process makes it inefficient. On the
other hand, the binary search on an array is efficient and
fast. You can access the array’s middle by command
“array[middle]”. You can’t do the same with a linked list
because you have to write your algorithm to obtain the
middle node’s value of a linked list.

20) Why binary tree is a recursive data structure?

ANSWER :-
Preparing for the frequently asked binary tree questions
increases your chances of getting hired. A recursive data
structure is partially composed of smaller instances of
the same data structure. A binary tree is a recursive data
structure because it can be correspondingly defined in
two ways. They are either using an empty tree or a node
pointing to two binary trees (its left child and its right
child). The binary tree’s recursive relationships that are
used to define a structure offer a natural model for
working any recursive algorithm on the data structure.

21) What is the difference between a general tree and a

binary tree?
ANSWER :-
These types of top 50 tree interview questions test the
candidates’ in-depth knowledge of binary trees. In a
general tree, every node can have either zero or multiple
child nodes. It can’t be empty. There is no upper limit on
a node’s degree. The topmost node is known as the root
node. Several subtrees exist in a general tree.
A binary tree is the specific version of the General tree. In
a binary tree, every node can have a maximum of two
nodes. There is a limitation on a node’s degree. This is
because the nodes in a binary tree can have a maximum
of two child nodes. Two subtrees exist i.e. left-subtree
and right-subtree. The binary tree can be empty, unlike
the general tree. Contrasting the general tree, a binary
tree’s subtree is ordered because its nodes can be
ordered based on specific criteria.