What are the differences between balanced and unbalanced binary search trees?

What are the differences between balanced and unbalanced binary search trees?

Balanced binary search trees maintain a low height, ensuring efficient operations like search, insert, and delete. Unbalanced trees can become skewed, leading to degraded performance.

Can you give me examples of balanced BSTs?

Sure! Examples of balanced binary search trees include AVL trees and Red-Black trees. They automatically maintain balance during insertions and deletions.

What happens if a BST becomes unbalanced?

If a BST becomes unbalanced, its height increases, which can lead to operations taking longer, potentially degrading to O(n) time complexity instead of O(log n).

How can I convert an unbalanced BST to a balanced one?

You can convert an unbalanced BST to a balanced one by performing an in-order traversal to retrieve the nodes in sorted order, then constructing a balanced tree from that sorted list.