Can you explain the main differences between stack and heap memory in the context of programming?

Stack and heap are two areas of memory used for storing data in a program, but they differ in management method and purpose.

Stack:

• Stores local variables and information about function calls (stack frames).
• Managed automatically: memory is allocated when entering a function and released upon exit.
• Fast access, but limited in size.
• Data in the stack have a short lifespan — as long as the function is executing.

Heap:

• Used for dynamic memory allocation (e.g., objects, arrays).
• Memory management is manual (in some languages) or via garbage collection.
• The heap is usually larger than the stack.
• Data lives until explicitly freed or collected by the garbage collector.

Example: in Android, when creating an object with new, memory is allocated on the heap, and the reference to the object can be stored in the stack as a local variable.