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I'm trying to understand what a random binary tree is. According to Wikipedia:

Two different distributions are commonly used: binary trees formed by inserting nodes one at a time according to a random permutation, and binary trees chosen from a uniform discrete distribution...

If I start with a root and then append nodes randomly with no consideration to depth. Would that be considered a random binary tree? Or am I missing something?

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Philip Kirkbride
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  • What do you mean by "with a random leaf as parent"? What is logic behind adding a single node? For example, node adding like in a binary search tree. – fade2black Jul 14 '17 at 22:55
  • I actually just meant randomly appending to the bottom rather than doing any sort of inserts. I shouldn't have said leaf. @fade2black – Philip Kirkbride Jul 14 '17 at 22:55

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A random binary tree is any tree that is generated by any random process. So, yes. You have described a random process that generates a binary tree; you can describe the result as a random binary tree.

At a technical level, if you have any random variable whose values are binary trees, it would be reasonable to call that a "random binary tree".

Wikipedia is saying that there are two random processes that are particularly commonly considered. But those aren't the only possibilities. You've described a third possibility, and that's also valid.

D.W.
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