To delete or not to delete

What this C++ memory-management interview question tests

This is an easy C++ question that quant firms use to assess whether you understand the difference between stack and heap allocation, and how to avoid resource leaks in practice. It's less about knowing the "right answer" and more about demonstrating awareness of ownership and cleanup semantics.

Strong candidates recognize the fundamental patterns: manual cleanup via destructors, scope-based resource management (RAII), and modern alternatives like smart pointers. The question rewards clear thinking about who is responsible for freeing memory and when that responsibility is discharged. Even at easy difficulty, interviewers often follow up by asking you to compare approaches on safety, performance, and readability—especially relevant in latency-sensitive codebases.

• Stack vs. heap allocation trade-offs
• Destructor semantics and cleanup obligations
• Smart pointers as an alternative to manual delete
• RAII (Resource Acquisition Is Initialization)