Priority Queue
Noun · Development
Definitions
An abstract data structure where each element has an associated priority and the element with the highest (or lowest) priority is always dequeued first, regardless of insertion order. Commonly implemented with a binary heap, giving O(log n) insertion and extraction.
In plain English: A waiting line where the most important item always goes to the front, rather than the one that arrived first.
Example: "The task scheduler uses a priority queue so critical alerts always get processed before batch jobs."