ITPEC FE Morning October 2019 Question 17

Source exam: ITPEC FE Morning October 2019Topic: Computer Systems & Hardware

ITPEC FE Morning October 2019 — Question 17 of 80

Memory Leak — memory allocated during execution is never released due to a bug, causing usable memory to shrink over time.

Why (c):
- Part of main memory reserved during operation is not released because of a bug in the OS or application

- As a result, the usable area of main memory decreases — this is the definition of a memory leak

Why not others:
- (a) Thrashing — excessive paging due to too many concurrent processes, drastically reducing throughput

- (b) Overlay — a technique to load program modules into limited memory on demand

- (d) Fragmentation — total free memory is sufficient, but no single contiguous block is large enough for a program

Key rule: Memory leak = allocated memory never freed due to a bug → available memory gradually decreases.

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