What happens when a program's stack size exceeds allocated limits?

When a program's stack size exceeds allocated limits, a stack overflow occurs. The stack is a special area of memory used for managing function calls, local variables, and control flow—basically handling how the program's execution progresses. Each function call typically adds a new layer to the stack, and if there are too many nested function calls or if a function uses excessive local variables, the allocated stack space can be fully utilized.

Once the stack grows beyond its designated limit, it can either overwrite adjacent memory areas or trigger a stack overflow exception depending on the programming environment and operating system in use. This overflow disrupts the normal execution of the program, often leading to crashes or undefined behavior, as the program can no longer safely manage its execution context.

As for the other options, while a stack trace can be helpful for debugging and may occur in some circumstances, it is not a guaranteed outcome of exceeding the stack limit. A memory leak, which involves losing access to allocated memory without being able to free it, is not directly related to the stack size exceeding limits, as it deals with heap memory management instead. Therefore, the most accurate description of what happens in this scenario is indeed a stack overflow.