A binary tree is composed of nodes, where each node contains a value and references (pointers) to a left and right child node. It may be empty or have a root node from which all other nodes are reachable through unique paths. Nodes without child nodes are leaves. The size is the number of nodes, and the depth is the longest path from the root node. Binary trees can be balanced or unbalanced. Common traversals that visit each node once include preorder, inorder, and postorder, which differ in when the root node is visited among its child subtrees.