Heap

A heap is a specialized tree-based data structure that efficiently manages a collection of elements, typically used in computer science for tasks like priority queuing. It maintains a specific order among its elements: in a max-heap, each parent node is greater than its children, while in a min-heap, it’s the opposite. This structure allows for quick access to the largest or smallest element, making operations like insertion and deletion faster compared to other data structures. Heaps are particularly useful in algorithms like heap sort and for implementing priority queues in applications.