Problem Statement
Explain how memory management differs between structs and classes in Swift, and what effects this has on performance or design.
Explanation
In Swift, classes are reference types and use Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) to manage memory: each time you create a reference the count increments, and when references drop to zero the instance is deallocated. This means misuse (e.g., strong reference cycles) can cause memory leaks. Structs are value types and don't use ARC; copying creates independent instances and memory is managed more simply. /n/n From a performance perspective, structs often have less overhead (no reference counting, fewer indirections) and may be allocated on the stack or optimized by the compiler. However, if a struct is large and copied often, the overhead can be higher. Understanding these trade-offs is important in interview discussions.
Practice Sets
This question appears in the following practice sets: