• JUPYTER
  • FAQ
  • View as Code
  • Python 3 Kernel
  • View on GitHub
  • Execute on Binder
  • Download Notebook
  1. interactive-coding-challenges
  2. graphs_trees
  3. check_balance

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

Challenge Notebook¶

Problem: Check if a binary tree is balanced.¶

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

Constraints¶

  • Is a balanced tree one where the heights of two sub trees of any node doesn't differ by more than 1?
    • Yes
  • If this is called on a None input, should we raise an exception?
    • Yes
  • Can we assume we already have a Node class with an insert method?
    • Yes
  • Can we assume this fits memory?
    • Yes

Test Cases¶

  • None -> No
  • 1 -> Yes
  • 5, 3, 8, 1, 4 -> Yes
  • 5, 3, 8, 9, 10 -> No

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 BstBalance(Bst):

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

Unit Test¶

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

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


class TestCheckBalance(unittest.TestCase):

    def test_check_balance_empty(self):
        bst = BstBalance(None)
        bst.check_balance()

    def test_check_balance(self):
        bst = BstBalance(Node(5))
        self.assertEqual(bst.check_balance(), True)

        bst.insert(3)
        bst.insert(8)
        bst.insert(1)
        bst.insert(4)
        self.assertEqual(bst.check_balance(), True)

        bst = BstBalance(Node(5))
        bst.insert(3)
        bst.insert(8)
        bst.insert(9)
        bst.insert(10)
        self.assertEqual(bst.check_balance(), False)

        bst = BstBalance(Node(3))
        bst.insert(2)
        bst.insert(1)
        bst.insert(5)
        bst.insert(4)
        bst.insert(6)
        bst.insert(7)
        self.assertEqual(bst.check_balance(), True)

        print('Success: test_check_balance')


def main():
    test = TestCheckBalance()
    test.assertRaises(TypeError, test.test_check_balance_empty)
    test.test_check_balance()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Solution Notebook¶

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

This website does not host notebooks, it only renders notebooks available on other websites.

Delivered by Fastly, Rendered by OVHcloud

nbviewer GitHub repository.

nbviewer version: 8b013f7

nbconvert version: 7.2.3

Rendered (Wed, 02 Jul 2025 19:20:10 UTC)