Priority Queue ADT

overview

Remember these Terms

• Priority queue: structure that returns the highest-priority item first.
• Priority: numeric or comparable rank used to order items.
• Max-heap / Min-heap: heap variants that give largest or smallest item first.
• Push / Enqueue: insert an item, typically O(log n) with a heap.
• Pop / Extract: remove and return the top item, O(log n).
• Peek / Top: read the current top item in O(1).
• Comparator: function that decides ordering, for example less or greater.
• Heap property: every parent has priority at least that of children.