AI engineering glossary · Computing foundations
What is memory leak?
Memory leak: A bug where a program keeps reserving memory it no longer needs and never releases it, so its memory use grows over time until the system slows or crashes. Long-running services are most exposed to it.
Memory leak: an example
A web service whose memory climbs from 300 MB to 4 GB over a week, without traffic growing, likely has a leak.
Related terms
More Computing foundations terms
Where you learn it
Memory leak is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.