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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-14T00:15:52+00:00

When I learned Java, I was told that the arraylist works this way: It

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When I learned Java, I was told that the arraylist works this way:

  • It creates an array with room for 10 elements.

  • When the 11th element is added, it is created a new list with room for 20 elements, and the 10 elements are copied into the new array. This will repeat as until there are no more elements to add, or to a maximum size.

Is the List in .NET constructed the same way?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You can easily test this by querying a List’s Capacity:

        var a = new List<string>();

    Console.WriteLine(a.Capacity); // Writes 0

    a.Add("abc");

    Console.WriteLine(a.Capacity); // Writes 4

    a.Add("abc");
    a.Add("abc");
    a.Add("abc");
    a.Add("abc");

    Console.WriteLine(a.Capacity); // Writes 8

    So it doesn’t allocate any room at all upon instantiation, but upon first added item. From 8 it grows to 16, 32, etc…

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