title: Depth vs Height of a tree. Refreshing the fundamentals
body: <p>I am doing a refresher an algorithms and data structures.  </p>
  
  <p>I am confused on the concept of <em>depth</em> vs <em>height</em> of a tree. In many cases, especially on sites focusing on interview quizes, it seems to me that these terms are used interchangeably.  </p>
  
  <p>It seems to me that the basic literature defines them as applicable to a <strong>node</strong> and <strong>not</strong> to a tree.  </p>
  
  <p>So the depth of the root (which is a node) is <code>0</code>. The height of root (or any subnode) is the max height of its children.  </p>
  
  <p>But when you apply these terms on a tree i.e. find the max depth of a tree, it seems that these terms now are "meaningless" and can be used interchangeably i.e. to find the max depth just calculate max height.  </p>
  
  <p>For example in this post <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/742844/how-to-determine-if-binary-tree-is-balanced">Check if tree is balanced</a> the answers focus on the height of the tree while the definition of balance could be on the depth of the tree</p>
  
  <p>Is my understanding correct or am I messing up on these fundamentals?</p>