What is a common disadvantage of using recursion in programming?

Using recursion in programming can indeed be more memory intensive due to the way function calls are managed in the call stack. Each recursive call adds a new layer to the stack, which requires additional memory. If the recursion goes too deep, it can lead to stack overflow errors, which occur when the call stack exceeds its limits. This is particularly true for cases where the recursion depth is high, or when the recursive solution is not optimized with techniques such as tail recursion.

In comparison, iterative solutions typically make better use of memory since they do not add layers to the call stack in the same way. Instead, they simply update variable values in a single stack frame. This factor makes recursion a less favorable choice in scenarios where memory efficiency is crucial, such as with large datasets or systems with limited resources.