Given a binary tree, find the lowest common ancestor (LCA) of two given nodes in the tree. According to the definition of LCA on Wikipedia: “The lowest common ancestor is defined between two nodes p and q as the lowest node in T that has both p and q as descendants (where we allow a node to be a descendant of itself).”

Test Cases

Example 1: 

Input: root = [3,5,1,6,2,0,8,null,null,7,4], p = 5, q = 1
Output: 3
Explanation: The LCA of nodes 5 and 1 is 3.

Example 2: 

Input: root = [3,5,1,6,2,0,8,null,null,7,4], p = 5, q = 4
Output: 5
Explanation: The LCA of nodes 5 and 4 is 5, since a node can be a descendant of itself according to the LCA definition.

Example 3:

Input: root = [1,2], p = 1, q = 2
Output: 1

Constraints:

Solution

/**
 * Definition for a binary tree node.
 * struct TreeNode {
 *     int val;
 *     struct TreeNode *left;
 *     struct TreeNode *right;
 * };
 */
struct TreeNode* lowestCommonAncestor(struct TreeNode* root, struct TreeNode* p, struct TreeNode* q) {
    if (!root || root == p || root == q) {
        return root;
    }

    struct TreeNode *left = lowestCommonAncestor(root->left, p, q);
    struct TreeNode *right = lowestCommonAncestor(root->right, p, q);
    if (left && right) {
        return root;
    }
    return left ? left : right;
}
/**
 * Definition for a binary tree node.
 * struct TreeNode {
 *     int val;
 *     TreeNode *left;
 *     TreeNode *right;
 *     TreeNode(int x) : val(x), left(NULL), right(NULL) {}
 * };
 */
class Solution {
public:
    TreeNode* lowestCommonAncestor(TreeNode* root, TreeNode* p, TreeNode* q) {
        if (!root || root == p || root == q) {
            return root;
        }

        TreeNode *left = lowestCommonAncestor(root->left, p, q);
        TreeNode *right = lowestCommonAncestor(root->right, p, q);
        if (left && right) {
            return root;
        }
        return left ? left : right;
    }
};
/**
 * Definition for a binary tree node.
 * public class TreeNode {
 *     int val;
 *     TreeNode left;
 *     TreeNode right;
 *     TreeNode(int x) { val = x; }
 * }
 */
class Solution {
    public TreeNode lowestCommonAncestor(TreeNode root, TreeNode p, TreeNode q) {
        if (root == null) return null;
        if (root.val == p.val || root.val == q.val) return root;

        TreeNode left = lowestCommonAncestor(root.left, p, q);
        TreeNode right = lowestCommonAncestor(root.right, p, q);
        if (left != null && right != null) return root;
        if (left != null) return left;
        if (right != null) return right;
        return null;
    }
}
# Definition for a binary tree node.
# class TreeNode:
#     def __init__(self, x):
#         self.val = x
#         self.left = None
#         self.right = None

class Solution:
    def lowestCommonAncestor(self, root: 'TreeNode', p: 'TreeNode', q: 'TreeNode') -> 'TreeNode':
        if root is None:
            return None
        if root.val == p.val or root.val == q.val:
            return root
        left = self.lowestCommonAncestor(root.left, p, q)
        right = self.lowestCommonAncestor(root.right, p, q)
        if left is not None and right is not None:
            return root
        if left is not None:
            return left
        if right is not None:
            return right
        return None
Time Complexity: O(n)
Space Complexity: O(h)