Binary Search Tree Insertion and Deletion
These flashcards cover BST insertion and deletion — operations tested in CS data structures courses and coding interviews. A BST maintains sorted order through the invariant that left children are smaller and right children are larger. Deletion is the trickiest operation, requiring handling of three distinct cases based on node structure.
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5 CardsBST deletion — three cases
What is a degenerate BST?
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What is the time complexity of BST operations?
For a balanced BST: O(log n) for search, insert, and delete. For a degenerate BST (sorted insertions): O(n) worst case. Self-balancing trees (AVL, Red-Black) guarantee O(log n) always.
Why is deletion harder than insertion in a BST?
Insertion always adds a leaf node — straightforward. Deletion must maintain BST property while restructuring the tree, requiring three different strategies depending on whether the deleted node has zero, one, or two children.
What is an in-order traversal of a BST?
In-order traversal (left → root → right) of a BST produces nodes in sorted ascending order. This property is used in deletion to find the in-order successor and is tested frequently in interviews.