Define the term 'graph' in computer science.

In computer science, a graph is defined as a collection of nodes (or vertices) and edges (or links) that represent relationships between entities. This structure allows for the modeling of relationships in various domains, such as social networks (where nodes may represent people and edges represent friendships), transportation networks (where nodes can represent locations and edges represent paths or roads), or even in more abstract data structures.

Graphs are fundamental in various fields of computer science and are widely used for tasks such as searching (like depth-first search or breadth-first search), optimizing paths (like Dijkstra’s algorithm for shortest paths), and analyzing relationships (like in recommendation systems). Their flexibility and usefulness in representing interconnected data make them a crucial concept in computer science.

The other options, while related to programming and data management, do not encapsulate the broader definition of a graph. For example, a sequence of operations pertains more to algorithms, a programming structure refers to how data might be organized in code, and encryption specifically relates to data security, not the general representation of relationships as found in graphs.