Questions
5 of 10
1Explain the fan-out and fan-in concurrency pattern with a practical example.
2How does the select statement work with multiple channels, including a default case?
3How does Go's GMP scheduler work and how does it affect concurrency design?
4Describe how you would approach a Go service that needs to process Kafka events with exactly-once semantics.
5What is a goroutine leak and how do you detect and prevent one?
6When should you use sync.Mutex vs channels for shared state?
7How would you implement a distributed task queue in Go without using an external framework?
8What is a goroutine, and how does it differ from an OS thread?
9What is the difference between a buffered and unbuffered channel?
10Design a worker pool for processing 100,000 jobs with back-pressure and graceful shutdown.
golanggolang
Basics
Data Structures
Interfaces and Types
Concurrency
Memory Management
Error Handling
Packages and Modules
Web and API Development
Databases and Storage
Testing
DevOps and Deployment
Standard Library
05 / 10

What is a goroutine leak and how do you detect and prevent one?

A goroutine leak occurs when a goroutine blocks indefinitely — usually waiting on a channel or lock that is never resolved — consuming memory and system resources silently over time.

Common causes of goroutine leaks
  1. 1

    Goroutine waiting on a channel that is never written to or closed

  2. 2

    Missing context cancellation — goroutine has no way to know the request was cancelled

  3. 3

    Infinite loop without a done signal

  4. 4

    Deadlocked mutual sends — two goroutines each waiting for the other to receive

  5. 5

    HTTP response body not read and closed — underlying goroutine in transport stays alive

Detection and prevention