The four groups

  • Garbage-collection algorithms

    MARK-SWEEP · COPYING · GENERATIONAL · REFERENCE COUNTING

  • Memory regions in a running process

    HEAP · STACK · BSS · TEXT

    Four of the standard segments a pmap or cat /proc/$$/maps will show you.

  • Pointer hazards

    USE-AFTER-FREE · DOUBLE-FREE · DANGLING · WILD

  • Words that precede COLLECTOR

    GARBAGE · TAX · DEBT · SOLAR

Why this puzzle works

The title misdirects — you expect 'garbage' to live in the GC algorithm group. It doesn't. GARBAGE is a wordplay tile (garbage collector), and the algorithms group is the *kinds* of GC (mark-sweep, copying, generational, ref-counting). The pointer-hazards group is the danger inventory — every one of those four is a real CWE-class memory bug. DANGLING in particular is the most-mis-shelved tile in playtest; some players want to put it with USE-AFTER-FREE-adjacent things only.

How to read a Connectle without solving it

A code-themed grouping puzzle rewards counting as much as recognition. Start by listing every plausible group, then notice which tiles appear in two lists. Whichever group has exactly four unambiguous members is your anchor — solve it first and the rest of the board collapses by elimination. The hardest tier (purple) is almost always wordplay: tiles that share a prefix or suffix, not a concept. If a tile feels orphaned, ask whether the same word could follow or precede a common engineering word like root, stack, cache, or queue.