How can a stack overflow occur in a program?

A stack overflow occurs when a program uses too much stack memory, usually due to deep or infinite recursion. Each function call adds a new frame to the call stack, and if there are too many calls without an exit, the stack overflows.

Example of infinite recursion:

void recursive() {
    recursive(); // call itself without an exit condition
}

In Android applications, this can happen if, for example, a self-call occurs in an event handler without control, or due to incorrect algorithm implementation.

To avoid stack overflow:

• Use iterative algorithms instead of recursive ones if the call depth can be large.
• Add exit conditions to recursion.
• In some cases, use tail recursion if the language/compiler optimizes it.

Stack overflow usually results in a StackOverflowError.