What is the difference between a stack and a queue in data structures, and when would you use each?
Answer (1)
A stack and a queue are both linear data structures used to store and manage collections of elements, but they differ in how elements are added and removed.A stack follows the Last In, First Out (LIFO) principle, meaning the most recently added element is the first to be removed. Imagine a stack of plates: you add and remove plates from the top of the stack. Stacks are useful in scenarios such as function call management in programming, undo mechanisms in applications, and parsing expressions.A queue follows the First In, First Out (FIFO) principle, where the oldest added element is the first to be removed, similar to a line at a checkout counter. Queues are useful in scenarios like task scheduling, breadth-first search in graphs, and buffering in data streaming.Choosing between them depends on whether you need last-added elements to be processed first (stack) or first-added elements to be processed first (queue). Both structures support fundamental operations like adding (push/enqueue) and removing elements (pop/dequeue), but their order of element processing sets them apart.
