First-In-First-Out buffers for task scheduling and breadth-first traversals.
Theory
Code
Theory & Description
A queue is a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) data structure where elements are added at the rear and removed from the front. Like a line at a store, the first person in line is the first to be served. Queues are essential for scheduling tasks, managing requests in servers, and breadth-first graph traversals. Variants include priority queues, deques, and circular queues.
Common Use Cases
- Task scheduling and process management
- Breadth-first search (BFS) traversals
- Print job and request buffering
- Message queues in distributed systems
Complexity Cheat Sheet
| Operation | Average | Worst |
|---|---|---|
| Access | O(n) | O(n) |
| Search | O(n) | O(n) |
| Enqueue | O(1) | O(1) |
| Dequeue | O(1) | O(1) |
| Space Complexity | O(n) | |
Visualization
Problems
Interactive Visualization
Interactive Visualization
An interactive playground for Queues will appear here. Insert elements, step through operations, and watch the data structure update in real time.