Pros:

Automatic memory management: Garbage collection eliminates the need for manual memory management, which can be error-prone and time-consuming, especially in large or complex programs.

Memory leak prevention: Garbage collection helps prevent memory leaks by automatically freeing up memory that is no longer being used by a program.

Improved program stability: Garbage collection reduces the likelihood of program crashes due to memory exhaustion or other memory-related issues.

Simplified programming: Garbage collection allows programmers to focus on writing application logic without having to worry about memory management, leading to simpler and more readable code.

Cons:

Performance overhead: Garbage collection can have a performance overhead due to the need to periodically scan and free up memory. This can impact program response time and throughput, especially in real-time systems or systems with limited memory resources.

Pause times: Garbage collection may cause pause times or “stop the world” events, where the program must pause execution while garbage collection is performed. This can impact the responsiveness of the program and may be unacceptable in some applications.

Memory fragmentation: Garbage collection can lead to memory fragmentation, where free memory is broken up into smaller and smaller pieces, making it harder to find contiguous blocks of memory for allocation.

Resource usage: Garbage collection may consume significant system resources, such as CPU time, memory, and I/O bandwidth. This can be a problem in resource-constrained environments or in applications that require high performance.