Debug a Memory Leak

When debugging a memory leak:

1. Confirm the leak: monitor memory usage over time. A leak shows steadily increasing memory without plateauing.
2. Take heap snapshots at intervals: before the operation, after repeating the operation several times.
3. Compare snapshots to identify objects that accumulate but are never released.
4. Check common causes: event listeners not removed, intervals/timers not cleared, closures holding references, growing caches without eviction, detached DOM nodes.
5. Fix the leak: add cleanup functions, clear timers, remove event listeners, add cache size limits.
6. Verify the fix by monitoring memory usage under the same load pattern.