Max Heap
In plain terms
A heap where the largest element is always at the top.
Going deeper
A max heap keeps the maximum value at the root, ideal when you repeatedly need the biggest item. Insert and extract-max are logarithmic.
Under the hood
Parent is always ≥ children; underlies heapsort and top-k-largest queries.
Examples
Heapsort, finding k largest, priority scheduling, median maintenance.
Think of it like...
Like a leaderboard where the highest score is always shown first.