A Binary Tree is a hierarchical data structure in which each node has at most two children, referred to as the left child and the right child. This structure is widely used in computer science for organizing data in a way that allows efficient searching, insertion, and deletion operations.

Characteristics:
Root Node: The topmost node of the tree.
Children: Nodes directly connected to another node.
Leaf Nodes: Nodes with no children.
Depth: The level of a node relative to the root.
Height: The longest path from the root node to a leaf node.
Types of Binary Trees:
Full Binary Tree: Every node has either 0 or 2 children.
Complete Binary Tree: All levels except possibly the last are fully filled, and all nodes are as far left as possible.
Balanced Binary Tree: The height difference between left and right subtrees for any node is no more than one.
Binary Search Tree (BST): A sorted binary tree where the left child contains values less than the parent, and the right child contains values greater than the parent.
Operations:
Traversal: Methods to visit all nodes, such as:
Inorder (Left-Root-Right): Produces sorted output for BSTs.
Preorder (Root-Left-Right): Useful for copying the tree.
Postorder (Left-Right-Root): Useful for deleting the tree.
Insertion and Deletion: Performed while maintaining the binary tree properties.
Search: Efficiently finds elements in O(log n) time for balanced trees.
Applications:
Database Indexing: Binary trees, especially B-trees, are used for quick data retrieval.
Expression Parsing: Represent arithmetic expressions in computational systems.
Huffman Encoding: Constructs trees for optimal data compression.
A binary tree’s simplicity and versatility make it foundational in computer science, enabling efficient data organization and manipulation in diverse applications.