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Python: Which practice avoids a common mistake with Reference Counting and Garbage Collection?

Difficulty:

Medium

Questions:

1

Time Limit:

2 minutes

Passing Score:

100%

Question

Which practice avoids a common mistake with Reference Counting and Garbage Collection?

  1. Do not assume the garbage collector will fix every lifetime issue, especially when external resources or long-lived references are involved.
  2. Ignore the Reference Counting and Garbage Collection issue and rely on team discipline instead of clearer APIs or invariants.
  3. Silence the Reference Counting and Garbage Collection problem by using broad catches, hidden globals, or extra shared mutable state.
  4. Prefer the version of Reference Counting and Garbage Collection that makes behavior less predictable as long as the code still runs.

Hint

Look for the option that protects correctness instead of hiding the problem.

Answer and rationale

Correct answer: A. Do not assume the garbage collector will fix every lifetime issue, especially when external resources or long-lived references are involved.

Do not assume the garbage collector will fix every lifetime issue, especially when external resources or long-lived references are involved. This is a common failure mode in real Python code and a frequent interview follow-up.

Track: Python