You are a software engineer with many years of experience. You’ve worked with countless tools and buzzwords. But then someone asks you a simple question: “What’s the difference between stack and heap?” You freeze. You stutter. You really don’t know. This is very common among developers who work with high-level languages, especially with so many tools and abstractions stacked on top of each other. For every software engineer starting now: don’t fall for the fear of missing out, chasing only the latest trends. Make sure you build a solid foundation first. #softwareengineering #developers #programming
It also happens that experienced engineers use these fundamentals intuitively (whether from early study or from figuring things out over time), even if they can't recite the definition on the spot. Some often apply concepts long before they can formally explain them (ie I used parts of DDD for years before studying it properly) That’s why practical problem-solving ability matters more than theory checks. Still, theoretical definitions help with communication and give you useful shortcuts early on.
That is probably the most useless interview question of all times, when it comes to work with high-level languages. I would love to see one day that interviewer - who intents to ask such a question - would demonstrate their ability to be able to write production code specifically that uses only the stack and then cofec that only the heap, and explain exactly how is that contributes to their product specifically. If you need a person to tight screws, no need to ask them what's the melting point of metal the the screw made of. They will always freeze. Pro tip: ask questions that matters.
This is the main reason I decided to learn C because it exposes me to low level details I would not even have to think about when I'm working with a high level language. And once you get to a certain point, there's a carry over between the two that makes you a better programmer and more aware of memory management, how to handle resources with care.
I think that most developers, even those strictly at a high level should at least read a few "for dummies" level books on C in order to have a better grasp of the underlying systems generally in place... it can help a lot even if you rarely have to consider it, there are times where you can make really bad decisions if you don't.
I agree with you, and I’m really surprised by how many people in the comments don’t care. Understanding the difference between the stack and the heap is a basic concept, and it’s incredibly useful for truly understanding what your program is doing. You will be a better programmer if you do know even if your language and tools abstract that for you.
Answering such questions is usually more an issue of trying to put the idea into words. A lot of the time we may have spent decades doing something but we haven’t tried to articulate it in a long time. We may not actively think about the topic much. It is like trying to explain how you drive home from work. It has become intuitive.
Or you can look at this differently: The fact that you can spend so many years being productive in this industry without knowing something is proof that you don't really need it in your work. You might still want to learn it, out of curiosity, but it's not a requirement for a lot of positions, and that's ok. The field is getting bigger and bigger, and we need specialisation just like any other industry.
For me, the difference between the stack and the heap is pretty obvious — but that’s probably because, mentally, I’m still somewhere around the 8086 era, where this wasn’t an “abstraction” but actual processor physiology. The stack was the sacred SS:SP duo, and every push/pop/call/ret went there without asking questions. The “heap,” on the other hand, was just some area in DS/ES where the runtime tried to hand out memory without falling apart. So back then it was all very honest: the stack had its own hardware-backed segment, and the heap was pretty much a free-for-all.