Leetcode Series. No 098: Validate Binary Search Tree

Max Tsogt
2 min readFeb 11, 2022

Given the root of a binary tree, determine if it is a valid binary search tree (BST).

A valid BST is defined as follows:

  • The left subtree of a node contains only nodes with keys less than the node’s key.
  • The right subtree of a node contains only nodes with keys greater than the node’s key.
  • Both the left and right subtrees must also be binary search trees.

Example 1:

Input: root = [2,1,3]
Output: true

Example 2:

Input: root = [5,1,4,null,null,3,6]
Output: false
Explanation: The root node's value is 5 but its right child's value is 4.

As always, follow the comments for each line.

In this solution, the time complexity is O(n) where n is the number of nodes. And space complexity is O(1).

From my comments on the code, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out.

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