Memory fragmentation occurs when free memory is scattered across the system, making it challenging to allocate contiguous blocks of memory for new processes. This can result in inefficiencies and reduced performance. Example: Consider a scenario where a system has several applications running and terminating at different intervals. Over time, memory fragmentation occurs as gaps of free memory become scattered between allocated memory. When a new application needs to be loaded, finding a large enough contiguous block of memory becomes difficult, slowing down the process loading times