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What are practical applications of Queues in Computer Science. Where do we use them and why? I heard that we use them in Video Games and Computer Simulation programs, is that true? Why? Apart from these two areas what are other practical applications of Queues as a data structure?
Queues are used for any situation where you want to efficiently maintain a First-in-first out order on some entities. These situations arise literally in every type of software development.
Imagine you have a web-site which serves files to thousands of users. You cannot service all requests, you can only handle say 100 at once. A fair policy would be first-come-first serve: serve 100 at a time in order of arrival. A Queue would definitely be the most appropriate data structure.
Similarly in a multitasking operating system, the CPU cannot run all jobs at once, so jobs must be batched up and then scheduled according to some policy. Again, a queue might be a suitable option in this case.