The difference between stack and heap memory is a common programming question asked by beginners learning Java or any other programming language. Stack and heap memory are two terms programmers start hearing once they started programming but without any clear and definite explanation. Lack of knowledge of what is a heap in Java and what is stack memory in Java results in misconceptions related to stack and heap. To add to this confusion, a stack is also a data structure that is used to store elements in LIFO(Last In First Out) order and is available in Java API as java.util.Stack.