Western Governors University (WGU) ICSC2100 C949 Data Structures and Algorithms I Practice Exam

A heap is the most suitable data structure for implementing a priority queue due to its efficiency in handling the operations required for priority queues, such as insertion and deletion of elements based on their priority.

In a priority queue, elements are assigned a priority, and the element with the highest priority is served before others. A heap, specifically a binary heap, allows for efficient retrieval of the highest (or lowest) priority element. The operations of insertion and deletion can both be performed in logarithmic time, O(log n), which is optimal for managing dynamic sets of elements.

Heaps maintain a partial order where the parent node is always greater (in a max heap) or lesser (in a min heap) than its child nodes, making it easy to access and remove the element with the highest (or lowest) priority. This characteristic is essential for ensuring the correct functionality of a priority queue.

In contrast, an array provides inefficient operations for maintaining order when inserting and removing elements, typically requiring O(n) time for sorting or finding the correct position for insertion. A linked list, while it can maintain order through insertion, also suffers from inefficient access times and may not always provide a good balance between speed and memory usage for these operations. A graph is not suitable for