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Introduction to Heap - Data Structure and Algorithm Tutorials
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Heap Data Structure

Last Updated : 26 Apr, 2025
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A Heap is a complete binary tree data structure that satisfies the heap property: for every node, the value of its children is greater than or equal to its own value. Heaps are usually used to implement priority queues, where the smallest (or largest) element is always at the root of the tree.


Basics

  • Binary Heap
  • Applications of Heap Data Structure

Library Implementations

  • Heap in C++ STL
  • priority_queue in C++
  • PriorityQueue in Java
  • PriorityQueue in C#
  • heapq in Python
  • Heap in JavaScript

Easy Problems

  • Check if an array is Heap?
  • K’th Smallest & K'th Largest
  • Heap Sort
  • Heap Sort for Decreasing Order
  • Height of a Heap with N Nodes

Medium Problems

  • Nearly Sorted Array
  • K Largest Elements & K Smallest
  • k Closest Elements
  • Max diff between two m Sized Subsets
  • Check if Binary Tree is Heap
  • Huffman Coding
  • Nodes less than a value in a Min Heap.
  • Connect n ropes with minimum cost
  • Maximum distincts after removing k elements
  • K maximum sum combinations from two arrays
  • Median in a stream
  • K’th largest in a stream
  • Largest triplet product in a stream
  • k most frequent
  • Sort by Frequency
  • Min Heap to Max Heap
  • Check for Min-Heap from Level Order

Hard Problems

  • The Skyline Problem
  • K-th Largest Sum Subarray
  • Find K Closest Points to the Origin
  • Merge k sorted arrays
  • Merge K Sorted Linked Lists
  • Range Covering K Sorted Lists
  • Prim's Minimum Spanning Tree
  • Dijkstra's Shortest Path
  • Sort numbers stored on different machines
  • Smallest Derangement of Sequence
  • Largest Derangement of a Sequence
  • Convert BST to Min Heap
  • Merge two binary Max Heaps
  • Minimum product of k integers
  • Leaf starting point in a Binary Heap
  • Rearrange characters such that no two same adjacent
  • Sum of all between k1’th and k2’th smallest
  • Min sum of two formed from given digits
  • A data structure with min and max

Other Types of Heaps

  • Binomial Heap
  • Fibonacci Heap
  • Leftist Heap
  • K-ary Heap

Quick Links:

  • Practice Problems on Heap
  • Quizzes on Heap

Recommended:

  • Learn Data Structure and Algorithms | DSA Tutorial

Next Article
Introduction to Heap - Data Structure and Algorithm Tutorials

H

harendrakumar123
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Article Tags :
  • Heap
  • DSA
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    Some other type of Heap

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