Kth Smallest Element in a BST

Kth Smallest Element in a BST

Given a binary search tree, write a function kthSmallest to find the kth smallest element in it.

Note: 
You may assume k is always valid, 1 ≤ k ≤ BST's total elements.

Follow up:
What if the BST is modified (insert/delete operations) often and you need to find the kth smallest frequently? How would you optimize the kthSmallest routine?

Hint:

1. Try to utilize the property of a BST.
2. What if you could modify the BST node's structure?
3. The optimal runtime complexity is O(height of BST).

Credits:
Special thanks to @ts for adding this problem and creating all test cases.

/**
 * Definition for a binary tree node.
 * public class TreeNode {
 *     int val;
 *     TreeNode left;
 *     TreeNode right;
 *     TreeNode(int x) { val = x; }
 * }
 */
public class Solution {
    public int kthSmallest(TreeNode root, int k) {
        ArrayList<Integer> list = new ArrayList<Integer>();
        helper(root, list);
        
        return list.get(k - 1);
    }
    
    private void helper(TreeNode root, ArrayList<Integer> list) {
        if (root == null)
            return;
        
        helper(root.left, list);
        list.add(root.val);
        helper(root.right, list);
    }
}