Introduction to Heaps & Priority Queues

A Heap is a specialized tree-based data structure that satisfies the heap property. In a Min Heap, for any given node C, if P is a parent node of C, then the key (the value) of P is less than or equal to the key of C. In a Max Heap, the key of P is greater than or equal to the key of C.

Heaps are commonly used to implement Priority Queues, which are abstract data types that are like a regular queue or stack, but where each element has a "priority".

Key Concepts

• Min Heap: The smallest element is always at the root.
• Max Heap: The largest element is always at the root.
• Insert: Adds a new element to the heap while maintaining the heap property.
• Extract-Min/Max: Removes the root element and re-balances the heap.

Interactive Heap Visualization

The visualization below demonstrates the basic operations of a Min Heap.