Top of the stack

Understanding stack memory layout in operating systems

This is an easy foundational question about how stacks are physically organized in memory. It tests whether you understand the relationship between logical stack direction and actual memory addressing—a concept that matters when debugging, working with low-level code, or reasoning about memory layout during interviews at systems-focused firms.

The question asks you to reason about the direction a stack grows and what that implies for the numeric addresses at different logical positions. To answer it, you need to be clear about the distinction between "top" and "bottom" as logical concepts versus their representation as actual memory addresses, and how processor and operating-system conventions define stack growth.

• Stack growth direction (upward vs. downward in memory)
• Logical vs. physical memory layout
• Address ordering and pointer arithmetic