Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025
Verified for the 2026 exam
Verified for the 2026 exam•Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025
Definition
Deques, short for double-ended queues, are data structures that allow insertion and removal of elements from both ends. They can be used to implement stacks and queues efficiently.
Related terms
Stacks: A stack is a data structure that follows the Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) principle, where elements are added and removed from only one end.
Queues: A queue is a data structure that follows the First-In-First-Out (FIFO) principle, where elements are added at one end and removed from the other end.
Arrays are fixed-size collections of elements stored in contiguous memory locations. They provide fast access to individual elements but have limited flexibility for insertion and deletion operations.