A heap data structure is a binary tree that satisfies two properties: it is a complete binary tree where each level is filled from left to right, and the value stored at each node is greater than or equal to the values of its children (the heap property). Heaps can be implemented using arrays where the root is at index 0, left child at 2i+1, and right child at 2i+2. The basic heap operations like building a heap from an array and heapifying subtrees run in O(log n) time, allowing priority queues and other applications to be efficiently implemented using heaps.