Arizona State University (ASU) CSE240 Introduction to Programming Languages Midterm Practice Exam

The data structure that allows for efficient insertion and deletion from both ends is the deque, or double-ended queue. This structure is specifically designed to enable operations at both the front and the back, making it ideal for scenarios where such flexibility is required.

Deques support operations like adding or removing elements from both ends in constant time, O(1), which is a significant advantage over other data structures. For instance, linked lists can also allow for efficient insertions and deletions, but they do not directly support access to both ends as effectively as deques, especially when considering the interface and use cases.

In contrast, arrays do not provide efficient removal or insertion from either end; operations at the beginning of an array involve shifting elements, which costs O(n) time. Binary trees offer a structure for hierarchical data representation and can facilitate various operations like searching and sorting but are not optimized for insertion or removal from both ends in the same way a deque is.

Thus, the deque stands out as the most suitable choice for achieving efficient insertion and deletion from both ends, making it the correct answer.