Heapq

Use Native Max-Heaps with Python heapq

Python’s heapq module has historically been centered on min-heaps: the smallest element lives at index zero. Developers who needed a max-heap commonly negated numeric priorities before pushing them and negated them again after popping. Python 3.14 makes that workaround unnecessary for many programs. heapq now exposes a complete max-heap API: heapify_max(), heappush_max(), heappop_max(), heappushpop_max(), and heapreplace_max(). The new functions are simple, but using them well still requires understanding heap invariants, fixed-size selection, tie-breaking, and the important difference between push-pop and replace operations.