LeetCode 98, 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 the root of a binary tree, determine if it is a valid binary search tree (BST).
A valid BST is defined as follows:
- The left subtree of a node contains only nodes with keys strictly less than the node’s key.
- The right subtree of a node contains only nodes with keys strictly greater than the node’s key.
- Both the left and right subtrees must also be binary search trees.
Examples
Explanation: The root node’s value is 5 but its right child’s value is 4.
Constraints
- The number of nodes in the tree is in the range
[1, 10^4].
-2^31 <= Node.val <= 2^31 - 1
Solution
Reference implementation from solution.py on GitHub, full suite in test_solution.py:
Complexity
Grind 75, Grind, Blind 75, NeetCode 150, NeetCode 250, NeetCode All, AlgoMaster 75. Last modified on September 7, 2026