Calculating the Height of a Binary Tree

In this lesson, you will learn how to calculate the height of a binary tree.

Height of Tree

Let’s start by defining the height of a tree. The height of a tree is the height of its root node. Now let’s see what we mean by the height of a node:

Height of Node

The height of a node is the number of edges on the longest path between that node and a leaf. The height of a leaf node is 0.

Recursively defined, the height of a node is one greater than the max of its right and left children’s height.

Below is an example of a binary tree labeled with heights of individual nodes:

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