🚀 C Challenge: Spot the Memory Leak! 🧠

Mukul Roy — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 03:21:35 +0000

Hello Devs! Time for another round of debugging. This time, we are diving into Dynamic Memory Allocation.

Look at the code below. It’s a simple function that creates a copy of a string. But wait... there's a serious problem here.
The Code:
C

include

char* get_string_copy(char *str) {
char *copy = (char *)malloc(strlen(str) + 1);
if (copy != NULL) {
strcpy(copy, str);
}
return copy;
}

int main() {
char *my_str = "Game Changer";
char *new_str = get_string_copy(my_str);

if (new_str != NULL) {
    printf("Copy: %s\n", new_str);
}

// Is something missing here?
return 0;

}

The Question:

Does this code have a Memory Leak? If yes, where?

How would you fix it to ensure the memory is properly managed?

What happens if we call get_string_copy inside a loop 1 million times without fixing the issue?

Let's see who can provide the cleanest fix! 🔎

🚀 C Challenge: Can you find the bug in this Pointer Logic? 🧠

Mukul Roy — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 18:14:39 +0000

Hello C Developers! 👋

Let's test our debugging skills today. I’ve written a small piece of code that is supposed to swap two strings using pointers. However, it's not behaving as expected for everyone, or is it?
The Code:

include

// Function to swap two string pointers
void swap_strings(char **str1, char **str2) {
char *temp = *str1;
*str1 = *str2;
*str2 = temp;
}

int main() {
char *p1 = "Game";
char *p2 = "Changer";

printf("Before Swap: p1 = %s, p2 = %s\n", p1, p2);

// Attempting to swap
swap_strings(&p1, &p2);

printf("After Swap: p1 = %s, p2 = %s\n", p1, p2);

return 0;

}

The Challenge:

Memory Safety: Does this code lead to a Segmentation Fault?

Pointer Logic: Are we swapping the actual content or just the memory addresses?

Best Practice: Why is using char *p = "String" considered risky compared to char p[] = "String" in this context?

I’ve seen many beginners struggle with pointer-to-pointer logic and String Literals. Let's discuss in the comments! 🔎

c #programming #debugging #challenge #learning

DEV Community: Mukul Roy

🚀 C Challenge: Spot the Memory Leak! 🧠

include

include

include

🚀 C Challenge: Can you find the bug in this Pointer Logic? 🧠

include

c #programming #debugging #challenge #learning