Compute time to burn tree
Company: Tesla
Role: Backend Engineer
Category: Coding & Algorithms
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Onsite
Given the root of a binary tree and the value of a target node that starts burning at time `0`, fire spreads every minute from a burning node to its left child, right child, and parent.
Return the number of minutes required for the entire tree to burn.
Notes:
- All node values are unique.
- The tree is not necessarily balanced.
- If the tree has only the target node, the answer is `0`.
Example idea: if the farthest node from the target is 4 edges away, the tree burns completely in 4 minutes.
Quick Answer: This question evaluates proficiency with tree algorithms, distance computation, and propagation modeling, testing the ability to reason about how a process spreads across parent-child relationships in a tree.