WeakReference — what is it and when is it useful?

Deep dive

Expanding on the short answer — what usually matters in practice:

• Context (tags): weakreference, weakhashmap, gc, caching
• JVM: memory (heap/stack), GC, and what drives latency.
• Contracts: equals/hashCode/toString, mutability and consequences.
• Performance: boxing, allocations, collections, inlining.
• Explain the "why", not just the "what" (intuition + consequences).
• Trade-offs: what you gain/lose (time, memory, complexity, risk).
• Edge cases: empty inputs, large inputs, invalid inputs, concurrency.

Examples

A tiny example (an explanation template):

// Example: discuss trade-offs for "weakreference-—-what-is-it-and-when-is-it-useful"
function explain() {
  // Start from the core idea:
  // A weak reference doesn’t prevent GC: if an object is only weakly referenced, it can be col
}

Common pitfalls

• Too generic: no concrete trade-offs or examples.
• Mixing average-case and worst-case (e.g., complexity).
• Ignoring constraints: memory, concurrency, network/disk costs.

Interview follow-ups

• When would you choose an alternative and why?