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LeetCode 235, Medium. Topics: Tree, Depth-First Search, Binary Search Tree, Binary Tree. View on LeetCode. Generate this problem as a practice environment: tested reference solution, 12 parametrized pytest cases, and a playground notebook:

Problem

Given a binary search tree (BST), find the lowest common ancestor (LCA) node of two given nodes in the BST. According to the definition of LCA on Wikipedia: β€œThe lowest common ancestor is defined between two nodes p and q as the lowest node in T that has both p and q as descendants (where we allow a node to be a descendant of itself).”

Examples

Example 1
Explanation: The LCA of nodes 2 and 8 is 6. Example 2
Explanation: The LCA of nodes 2 and 4 is 2, since a node can be a descendant of itself according to the LCA definition.

Constraints

  • The number of nodes in the tree is in the range [2, 10^5].
  • -10^9 <= Node.val <= 10^9
  • All Node.val are unique.
  • p != q
  • p and q will exist in the BST.

Solution

Reference implementation from solution.py on GitHub, full suite in test_solution.py:

Complexity

Tags

Grind 75, Grind, Blind 75, NeetCode 150, NeetCode 250, NeetCode All.
Last modified on August 25, 2026