Which of the following statements about memory deallocation is most appropriate when removing nodes?

• A. Deallocate the removed node to prevent memory leaks.
• B. Never deallocate; keep the node for debugging.
• C. Only deallocate if you plan to reuse the node.
• D. Deallocate the entire list.

Answer: (A)

When removing a node from a linked list, you must free the memory allocated for that node to prevent memory leaks. Once you unlink the node from the list, you no longer have a reference to that memory, so if you don’t deallocate it, that block stays reserved and unrecoverable—wasting resources. The correct approach is to first adjust the pointers so the list remains intact, then release the memory of the removed node. Deallocating just the removed node targets the real source of waste, whereas deallocating the entire list is only appropriate when you’re destroying the whole structure, not just one node. In languages without automatic memory management, this explicit freeing is essential; in garbage-collected languages, the concept maps to removing references so the collector can reclaim the memory.