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dsa6 min read

House Robber III — Tree DP with Pair Return (LC 337)

LC 337 House Robber III extends the classic House Robber DP to a binary tree where adjacent nodes cannot both be robbed. The optimal O(n) solution uses post-order DFS returning a (rob, skip) pair — a fundamental tree DP pattern tested at Amazon and Microsoft.

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dsa6 min read

Binary Tree Cameras — LC 968 Greedy 3-State DFS

LC 968 Binary Tree Cameras asks for the minimum number of cameras to monitor all nodes. The O(n) greedy solution assigns three states per node in a bottom-up DFS — delay camera placement as high as possible, a pattern tested at Amazon and Google.

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dsa6 min read

Distribute Coins in Binary Tree — LC 979 Post-Order Flow Analysis

LC 979 Distribute Coins in Binary Tree asks for minimum moves to give each node exactly one coin. The O(n) solution tracks coin excess flowing through each edge via post-order DFS — a pattern tested at Amazon and Google that elegantly converts a counting problem into a flow problem.

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dsa6 min read

Kth Ancestor of a Tree Node — LC 1483 Binary Lifting

LC 1483 Kth Ancestor of a Tree Node answers each query in O(log k) after O(n log n) preprocessing using binary lifting — a sparse table DP technique that also powers LCA algorithms and is commonly tested at Amazon.

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dsa6 min read

Binary Tree Maximum Path Sum — LC 124 Hard DFS Interview Classic

LC 124 Binary Tree Maximum Path Sum finds the highest-value path in a binary tree where the path can start and end at any node. The O(n) solution uses a post-order DFS that tracks the global max while returning only one branch to the parent — a critical FAANG interview problem at Amazon, Google, and Facebook.

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