What is a memory leak?

Shriyansh

Explain a memory leak.

himanshu_94

A memory leak is a type of software bug or programming error that occurs when a computer program or application fails to release memory that it has allocated but no longer needs or can reference. In other words, memory that is allocated for temporary use by a program is not properly deallocated or released when it is no longer in use, causing a gradual increase in memory consumption over time.

Memory leaks can lead to several negative consequences:
Increased Memory Usage
Reduced System Performance
Program Crashes
Degrading User Experience
Common causes of memory leaks include:
Failing to deallocate memory
Lost references
Circular references
Resource leaks