Explain the queue data structure and its operations.

Algorithm Design Questions



49 Short 51 Medium 39 Long Answer Questions Question Index

Explain the queue data structure and its operations.

The queue data structure is a linear data structure that follows the First-In-First-Out (FIFO) principle. It is similar to a real-life queue, where the first person to join the queue is the first one to be served.

The main operations of a queue are:

1. Enqueue: This operation adds an element to the end of the queue. It is also known as "push" or "insert". The newly added element becomes the last element in the queue.

2. Dequeue: This operation removes the element from the front of the queue. It is also known as "pop" or "remove". The element that was first added to the queue is the one to be removed.

3. Peek/Front: This operation returns the element at the front of the queue without removing it. It allows us to access the element without modifying the queue.

4. IsEmpty: This operation checks if the queue is empty or not. It returns true if the queue has no elements, and false otherwise.

5. Size: This operation returns the number of elements present in the queue.

These operations ensure that the elements in the queue are processed in the order they were added, making it suitable for scenarios where the order of processing is important, such as scheduling tasks or handling requests.