What are the disadvantages of Solid State Drives (SSDs)?

• A. They have no wear and tear.
• B. Limited lifespan due to finite read/write operations per cell.
• C. They are impervious to heat.
• D. They always perform at the same speed as HDD.

Answer: (B)

The idea being tested is why SSDs wear out over time. Flash memory in SSDs can only endure a finite number of program/erase cycles for each cell. Every time data is written and a block is erased, that cell wears a little more. Once a cell (or block) wears out enough, errors accumulate and reliability drops, eventually requiring replacement or reallocation of data to healthier cells. To counter this, drives use wear leveling to spread writes evenly across all cells and reserve spare area (over-provisioning) to replace worn-out sections. Because different NAND types have different endurance—SLC lasts longest, followed by MLC, TLC, and QLC—the expected lifespan varies with the drive’s technology and the workload. For light or typical consumer-use workloads, modern SSDs last many years, but heavy, sustained writing accelerates wear.

That’s why the other statements aren’t correct: SSDs aren’t wear-free, heat can harm them and cause throttling or reliability issues, and while they’re usually much faster than HDDs, their performance isn’t guaranteed to stay the same in every scenario.