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Traverse the tree, keep a hashtable with you and create a clone node for each node in the tree.
Start traversing the original tree again and connect each child pointer in the cloned tree the same way as the original tree with the help of the hashtable.
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Yes, variations of tree cloning and deep copy problems are common in FAANG-style interviews. They test understanding of tree traversal, recursion, and the ability to reconstruct complex data structures correctly.
A recursive stack for DFS or a queue for BFS works well for this problem. DFS is commonly preferred because the recursive structure naturally matches the tree hierarchy, making the cloning logic simple and readable.
The optimal approach is to traverse the tree using Depth-First Search (DFS) and create a new node for each visited node. During traversal, recursively clone each child and attach it to the new node. This ensures the structure and values of the original tree are preserved while keeping the complexity linear.
Cloning an N-ary tree requires visiting every node exactly once to create its copy. Therefore, the time complexity is O(N), where N is the number of nodes in the tree.
