Data Alignment and Packing
The role of data structure alignment and packing in optimizing heap memory usage is perfect for systems programmers, C/C++ learners, or memory optimization deep dives.
Compilers often align data on memory boundaries like 4 or 8 bytes to match CPU requirements and boost performance.
Packing removes or reduces this padding. Smaller structures have less heap usage, especially in large arrays.
Use packing when you’re memory-constrained — but watch out: misalignment can hurt performance.