Question
In the context of this lesson, is there a way to check if a list is a min heap?
Answer
Yes, you can check if a list is a min heap by making sure that the heap satisfies the heap property, for which every parent element must be less than or equal to both of its child elements.
To implement this, you can do this either iteratively or recursively. For an iterative implementation, you can start from the top element, and then compare it with both child elements, checking if it is less than both. If the element is not less than both children, then this is not a valid min heap. If it is less than both, just repeat this process down each element of the heap. If it reaches the last element of the heap without violating the heap property, it must be a valid min heap.
Feel free to try this out on your own!