Problem Description

In this problem, we're working with a very small binary tree, one that only has three nodes: a root node, a left child, and a right child. We're asked to determine if the value of the root node is equal to the sum of the values of its two children. If this condition is true, we should return true; otherwise, we return false. It's a straightforward problem focused on understanding the basic properties of a binary tree and how to access the values of its nodes.

Intuition

Given that the tree has exactly three nodes, this problem is greatly simplified compared to most tree problems. There's no need for complex traversal or recursion. The intuition behind the solution is based on the direct relationship between the nodes. By definition, the sum of the children's values can be compared directly with the root's value.

We can arrive at this solution approach by considering the following:

• Since the tree structure is guaranteed, we know that the root, the left child, and the right child all exist.
• We can access the values of these three nodes directly using root.val, root.left.val, and root.right.val.
• The sum of the values of the left and right children can be obtained with a simple addition: root.left.val + root.right.val.
• By comparing this sum to root.val, we can determine whether they are equal and thus return true or false accordingly.

This solution leverages the fact that, in Python, comparisons return a boolean value, which aligns perfectly with the requirement of our function to return a boolean.

Learn more about Tree and Binary Tree patterns.

Solution Approach

The implementation of the solution is straightforward given the simplicity of the problem. Here's a step-by-step walkthrough of the algorithm used in the provided solution code:

1. Accept the root of the binary tree as an argument. The problem statement guarantees that the tree consists of exactly three nodes.
2. Since the tree structure is known and fixed, we have direct access to the root's value as well as its left and right children's values.
3. Use the equality comparison operator == to compare the root's value root.val with the sum of its children's values root.left.val + root.right.val.
4. The comparison root.val == root.left.val + root.right.val will evaluate to either true or false.
5. Since the desired output of checkTree function is a boolean, directly return the result of that comparison.

There are no complex data structures, patterns, or algorithms needed to solve this problem. The simplicity of the binary tree's structure allows us to perform a direct comparison without the need for additional code or complex logic.

The code snippet follows this logic concisely:

# Definition for a binary [tree](/problems/tree_intro) node.
# class TreeNode:
#     def __init__(self, val=0, left=None, right=None):
#         self.val = val
#         self.left = left
#         self.right = right
class Solution:
    def checkTree(self, root: Optional[TreeNode]) -> bool:
        return root.val == root.left.val + root.right.val

In this code, the comparison root.val == root.left.val + root.right.val is the core of the solution. This comparison uses fundamental arithmetic (addition) and a basic equality check. It exploits the fact that in Python, a comparison operation itself yields a boolean result. This concise code results in an elegant and efficient implementation of the required functionality.

Example Walkthrough

Let's consider a simple example to illustrate the solution approach. Imagine we have a binary tree as follows:

    10
   /  \
  4    6

Here's the step-by-step walkthrough, with this specific tree in mind:

1. The input provided to the checkTree function is the root of the binary tree, which in this example has the value 10. The binary tree consists of exactly three nodes, which satisfies the problem requirement.

2. Accessing the root's value, we have root.val which is 10.

3. Similarly, we can access the left child's value root.left.val which is 4, and the right child's value root.right.val which is 6.

4. We then perform a comparison operation: root.val == root.left.val + root.right.val. Substituting the values from our example gives us 10 == 4 + 6.

5. The comparison 10 == 10 evaluates to true, which is the result we expect, given that the sum of the children's values equals the root's value.

In this example, the checkTree function would therefore return true, correctly indicating that the value of the root is equal to the sum of its children's values. This demonstrates the effectiveness of directly comparing the values to solve this problem without the need for traversing the tree or implementing complex logic.

Solution Implementation

Time and Space Complexity

The given Python function checkTree checks if the sum of the values of the left and right children of the root of a binary tree is equal to the value of the root itself.

Time Complexity

The time complexity of the function is O(1). This is because the function performs a constant number of operations: it accesses the value of the root node and the values of its immediate left and right children, and then it performs an addition and a comparison. Since these operations are constant and do not depend on the size of the input (i.e., the number of nodes in the tree), the time complexity is constant.

Space Complexity

The space complexity of the function is also O(1). The function uses a fixed amount of space: it stores two integer values (the sum of the left and right child values and the value of the root) and returns a boolean. Since the space used does not depend on the size of the input and no additional space is allocated during the execution of the function (e.g., no recursive calls or new data structures are created), the space complexity is constant.

Learn more about how to find time and space complexity quickly using problem constraints.