The Problem With Reference Counting | Garbage Collection

Reference counting is simple, predictable, and widely used — but it has one major flaw. In this episode, we explore the hidden weaknesses of reference counting and why it cannot serve as a complete garbage collection solution on its own.

🔍 What You’ll Learn

The core limitations of reference counting

Why circular references create memory leaks

Examples of cycles in real programs

How languages like Python and Swift work around these issues

Why some runtimes combine reference counting with tracing collectors

The deeper reason reference counting can't detect unreachable cycles

🧠 Why This Matters

Even though it's elegant and lightweight, reference counting breaks down in real applications without extra help. Understanding this limitation is key to understanding modern garbage collectors—and why they often need multiple strategies working together.

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📌 Core Keywords

reference counting

garbage collection

memory management

reference counting problem

reference counting limitations

circular references

memory leaks

strong vs weak references

rc cycles

gc cycles

automatic reference counting

arc retain cycle

retain cycle

cycle detection

rc garbage collector

reference counting vs garbage collection

📌 Language & Runtime Keywords

python garbage collection

python reference counting

swift arc

swift retain cycles

javascript garbage collection

rust rc

rust weak references

rust memory model

c++ shared_ptr cycle

📌 Technical Concept Keywords

heap memory

unreachable objects

tracing garbage collector

mark and sweep

hybrid garbage collector

smart pointers

memory safety

managed memory

📌 Educational Keywords

programming concepts

computer science fundamentals

memory leaks explained

beginner-friendly gc

coding memory management