ADT vs Physical Data Structure — TechAmbitionX | DSA
ADT vs Physical Data Structure — TechAmbitionX 1. What is an ADT (Abstract Data Type)? Definition: An ADT tells you what operations you can perform , not how they’re done . Analogy: Think of it as a menu in a restaurant . The menu says you can order “Pizza, Burger, Pasta” — but it doesn’t tell you how the chef cooks them. Examples: Stack (push, pop, peek) Queue (enqueue, dequeue) List (insert, delete, traverse) So, ADTs = concept + behavior. 🔹 2. What is a Physical Data Structure? Definition: This is the real recipe and ingredients in the kitchen that actually make the food. Analogy: If ADT is the menu → the Physical Structure is the kitchen setup (utensils, oven, storage). Examples: Array (continuous memory) Linked List (nodes + pointers) Tree (nodes with parent-child links) Graph (nodes + edges) ...