partitioning on Binary Tree
Last updated: October 13, 2025
Quick Overview
Perform a traversal on a binary tree and return the result.
Citadel
Coding & Algorithms
Software Engineer
Citadel
October 13, 2025Software Engineer
Onsite
Coding & Algorithms
Medium
222
15
2,909 solved
Perform a traversal on a binary tree and return the result.
Citadel uses this problem in the Onsite to evaluate your algorithmic thinking. They expect you to discuss multiple approaches, analyze trade-offs between them, and implement the optimal solution with clean, readable code.
What the Interviewer Expects
- Recognize the underlying problem pattern (sliding window, two pointers, BFS/DFS, etc.)
- Discuss multiple approaches and trade-offs before coding
- Implement an optimal solution with clean, production-quality code
- Handle all edge cases including boundary conditions and invalid input
- Optimize both time and space complexity with clear justification
- Test your solution systematically with well-chosen examples
Key Topics to Cover
Binary search and divide and conquer
Dynamic programming and memoization
Sorting and searching
Common algorithm patterns (sliding window, two pointers, BFS/DFS)
Tree structures and recursion
How to Approach This
- Clarify input constraints and edge cases before writing code.
- Walk through your approach verbally and confirm with the interviewer before coding.
- Start with a brute force solution, then optimize. Mention time and space complexity.
- Test your solution with examples, including edge cases like empty input or duplicates.
- Consider common patterns: sliding window, two pointers, hash map, BFS/DFS, dynamic programming.
Possible Follow-up Questions
- How would your solution change if the input was sorted?
- What happens if the input contains duplicates?
- How would you parallelize this solution?
- What is the worst-case input for your solution?
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Problem Analysis
The problem requires us to perform a traversal on a binary tree, which suggests a depth-first search (DFS) or breadth-first search (BFS) approach. Given the nature of binary trees, the DFS approach is...
Approach
- Start from the root of the binary tree.
- Recursively traverse the left subtree.
- Visit the root node and record its value.
- Recursively traverse the right subtree.
- Collect all valu...
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