Difference Between Sum of Nodes at Odd Levels and Sum of Nodes at Even Levels of a Binary Tree Using Recursion

Approach 

Recursively substract the data values of child nodes from current node.

Assume the full and complete tree with levels as:

6

11

1111

This will become 6 - (1-1-1) - (1-1-1) => 6 - (-1) - (-1) => 6+1 + 1 => 8.

 

Solution

int getLevelDiff(TreeNode n)
{
  if(n==null) return 0;
  
  return (n.data - getLevelDiff(n.left) - getLevelDiff(n.right));
}

 

Complexity

Time complexity will be O(n)

Space complexity will be O(log n) for recursive calls.

 

Solution for a non-binary tree

If we need to apply this for a generic tree (non-binary tree), we can do it as below assuming getChildren return a collection of trees that implements the Iterator interface:

int getLevelDiff(TreeNode n)
{
  if(n==null) return 0;
  
  int diffSum  = n.data;

  for(TreeNode t: n.getChildren())
  {
    diffSum = diffSum - getLevelDiff(t);
  }
  
  return diffSum;
}

Complexities will be similar to that of the original solution.

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