Serialize and Deserialize Binary Tree
Explore how to serialize a binary tree into a list of integers and then deserialize it back to ensure identical structure. This lesson helps you understand tree traversal with DFS and develop skills to handle binary tree transformations in coding interviews.
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Statement
Serialize a given binary tree to a file and deserialize it back to a tree. Make sure that the original and the deserialized trees are identical.
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Serialize: Write the tree to a file.
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Deserialize: Read from a file and reconstruct the tree in memory.
Serialize the tree into a list of integers, and then, deserialize it back from the list to a tree. For simplicity’s sake, there’s no need to write the list to the files.
Constraints:
- The number of nodes in the tree is in the range .
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Node.value
Examples
Understand the problem
Let’s take a moment to make sure you’ve correctly understood the problem. The quiz below helps you check if you’re solving the correct problem:
Serialize and Deserialize Binary Tree
What is the serialized output of this tree using level order traversal?
__ 350
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__ 75 ______
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25 _ ___ 200
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50 100
[350, 75, 25, 50, 200, 100]
[350, 75, 25, 200, 50, 100]
[25, 50, 75, 100, 200, 350]
[50, 25, 100, 200, 75, 350]
Figure it out!
We have a game for you to play. Rearrange the logical building blocks to develop a clearer understanding of how to solve this problem.
Try it yourself
Implement your solution in SerializeDeserializeBinaryTree.cpp in the following coding playground.
// Definition for a binary tree node// template<class T>// class TreeNode {// public:// T data;// TreeNode<T>* left;// TreeNode<T>* right;// TreeNode(const T data) : data(data), left(nullptr), right(nullptr) {}// };// Function to serialize tree into list of integers.vector<string> Serialize(TreeNode<int> *root){// Replace this placeholder return statement with your codereturn {""};}// Function to deserialize integer list into a binary tree.TreeNode<int> *Deserialize(vector<string> &stream){// Replace this placeholder return statement with your codereturn nullptr;}