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  1. interactive-coding-challenges
  2. graphs_trees
  3. bst_validate

This notebook was prepared by Donne Martin. Source and license info is on GitHub.

Challenge Notebook¶

Problem: Determine if a tree is a valid binary search tree.¶

  • Constraints
  • Test Cases
  • Algorithm
  • Code
  • Unit Test
  • Solution Notebook

Constraints¶

  • Can the tree have duplicates?
    • Yes
  • If this is called on a None input, should we raise an exception?
    • Yes
  • Can we assume we already have a Node class?
    • Yes
  • Can we assume this fits in memory?
    • Yes

Test Cases¶

Valid:
      5
    /   \
   5     8
  /     /
 4     6
        \
         7

Invalid:
      5
    /   \
   5     8
  / \   /
 4   9 7

Algorithm¶

Refer to the Solution Notebook. If you are stuck and need a hint, the solution notebook's algorithm discussion might be a good place to start.

Code¶

In [ ]:
%run ../bst/bst.py
%load ../bst/bst.py
In [ ]:
class BstValidate(Bst):

    def validate(self):
        # TODO: Implement me
        pass

Unit Test¶

The following unit test is expected to fail until you solve the challenge.

In [ ]:
# %load test_bst_validate.py
import unittest


class TestBstValidate(unittest.TestCase):

    def test_bst_validate_empty(self):
        bst = BstValidate(None)
        bst.validate()

    def test_bst_validate(self):
        bst = BstValidate(Node(5))
        bst.insert(8)
        bst.insert(5)
        bst.insert(6)
        bst.insert(4)
        bst.insert(7)
        self.assertEqual(bst.validate(), True)

        bst = BstValidate(Node(5))
        left = Node(5)
        right = Node(8)
        invalid = Node(20)
        bst.root.left = left
        bst.root.right = right
        bst.root.left.right = invalid
        self.assertEqual(bst.validate(), False)

        print('Success: test_bst_validate')


def main():
    test = TestBstValidate()
    test.assertRaises(TypeError, test.test_bst_validate_empty)
    test.test_bst_validate()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Solution Notebook¶

Review the Solution Notebook for a discussion on algorithms and code solutions.

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