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Solution: Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree

Explore the approach to finding the lowest common ancestor of two nodes in a binary tree. Understand how recursive depth-first search helps identify the ancestor by checking left and right subtrees and tracking node presence. Learn the time and space complexity involved and how to optimize recursive calls for efficient solutions.

Statement

Given the root node of a binary tree with nn nodes, your task is to find the lowest common ancestor of two of its nodes, p and q.

Note: The lowest common ancestor of two nodes, p and q, is defined as the lowest node in the binary tree that has both p and q as descendants.

A node can also be a descendant of itself. For example, if q is a descendant of p, and we know that p is a descendant of itself, then p will be the lowest common ancestor of p and q.

Constraints:

  • 2n5002 \leq n \leq 500
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