Nodes are the fundamental building blocks of many computer science data structures. They form the basis for linked lists, stacks, queues, trees, and more.

An individual node contains data and links to other nodes. Each data structure adds additional constraints or behavior to these features to create the desired structure.

Consider the node depicted in the pane to the right. This node (node_a) contains a piece of data (the number 5) and a link to another node (node_b).