GC frees only objects that are unreachable. If you keep references by mistake (e.g., a static list/map that grows, caches without eviction, listeners not removed), objects stay reachable and memory usage grows.
Advanced answer
Deep dive
Expanding on the short answer — what usually matters in practice:
Explain the "why", not just the "what" (intuition + consequences).
Trade-offs: what you gain/lose (time, memory, complexity, risk).
Edge cases: empty inputs, large inputs, invalid inputs, concurrency.
Examples
A tiny example (an explanation template):
// Example: discuss trade-offs for "how-can-you-have-a-memory-leak-in-java-even-with"
function explain() {
// Start from the core idea:
// GC frees only objects that are unreachable. If you keep references by mistake (e.g., a sta
}
Common pitfalls
Too generic: no concrete trade-offs or examples.
Mixing average-case and worst-case (e.g., complexity).