Heaps are a special category of the tree data structure, that are ordered with respect to the value of the tree's nodes or the keys associated with each node. This ordering is either ascending in a min heap, meaning that the root node is smaller in value or priority than it's child nodes, or descending in a max heap, meaning that the root node is larger in value or priority than it's child nodes. Note that heap data structures should not be confused with the heap memory of a computer system, which is the name typically used for system's dynamically allocated memory.

In this chapter we will cover the following topics: