Trees
Level-Order Traversal
Visit a tree breadth-first with a queue.
Algorithm
The canonical tree is 4(2(1,3),6(5,7)), so this Python DSA
implementation can be compared directly with the rest of the DSA track.
Basic Implementation
basic.py
class Node:
def __init__(self, value, left=None, right=None):
self.value = value
self.left = left
self.right = right
def render(node):
if node is None:
return "_"
if node.left is None and node.right is None:
return str(node.value)
return f"{node.value}({render(node.left)},{render(node.right)})"
def sample_tree():
n1 = Node(1)
n3 = Node(3)
n2 = Node(2, n1, n3)
n5 = Node(5)
n7 = Node(7)
n6 = Node(6, n5, n7)
return Node(4, n2, n6)
from collections import deque
root = sample_tree()
queue = deque([root])
output = []
while queue:
node = queue.popleft()
output.append(node.value)
if node.left is not None:
queue.append(node.left)
if node.right is not None:
queue.append(node.right)
print(output)
Complexity
- Time: O(n)
- Space: O(w) queue space
Implementation notes
- Python stores the tree as
Nodeobjects withvalue,left, andrightattributes, where missing children areNone. The traversal keeps object references in acollections.deque, starting withdeque([root]). - Each loop iteration uses
queue.popleft()to remove the current node from the front andqueue.append(...)to enqueue non-Nonechildren at the back, avoiding the shifting cost a list would pay forpop(0). outputis a Python list mutated withappend(node.value). The trace shows both replay-visible containers after every dequeue, such as queue[6, 1, 3]with output[4, 2], until the queue is empty.- The traversal allocates the deque and result list; those containers and the node objects are managed by Python while references to them remain.
level order
Level-order traversal uses a queue to visit shallower nodes first.