In graph theory and computer science, the lowest common ancestor (LCA) of two nodes is the lowest node that has both of them as descendants.

Here is an example, given a Binary Search Tree:

LCA(2, 8) = 6 
LCA(4, 7) = 6
LCA(2, 5) = 2
LCA(0, 3) = 2

What’s Binary search tree

Binary search tree have two properties:

• The value of right child is greater than node’s value

• The value of left child is less than node’s value

Approach #1: Recursive Algorithm

If we traverse each node of binary search tree and comparing the values of p , q and current node’s value, there are four scenarios:

• current node is NULL, we will return NULL as result

• root’s value is in the range of values of p and q, root is the lowest common ancestor

• root’s value is less than p and q, then lowest common ancestor will be in the left subtree

• root’s value is greater than p and q, then the lowest common ancestor will be the right subtree.

  Time Complexity: O(N)

  Space Complexity: O(N) for recursion stack.

  class Solution { public: TreeNode* lowestCommonAncestor(TreeNode* root, TreeNode* p, TreeNode* q) { if(root == NULL || p == NULL || q == NULL) return NULL; // scenario #1 if((p->val <= root->val && root->val <= q->val) || (p->val >= root->val && root->val >= q->val)) return root; // scenario #2 if(p->val < root->val && q->val < root->val) { return lowestCommonAncestor(root->left, p, q); // scenario #3 } if(p->val > root->val && q->val > root->val) { return lowestCommonAncestor(root->right, p, q); // scenario #4 } return NULL; } };

Approach #2: Iterative Algorithm

Iterative algorithm works similarly to the recursive algorithm, but we don’t need a stack to backtrace search. In fact, we only need to find the first node, which p and q begin to split, one of them is in this node’s left subtree, and the other is in the right subtree.

This algorithm is somehow similar to binary search.

Time Complexity: O(N)

Space Complexity: O(1)

class Solution {
public:
  TreeNode* lowestCommonAncestor(TreeNode* root, TreeNode* p, TreeNode* q) {
    TreeNode* node = root;
    while(node != NULL)   { 
        if(node->val > p->val && node->val > q->val) 
            node = node->left;
        else if(node->val < p->val && node->val < q->val)
            node = node->right;
        else
            return node;
    }
    return NULL;     
  }
};

When the tree is not a binary search tree, but only a binary tree. The solution would be more complex. Please refer to Lowest Common Ancestor Of A Binary Tree.