Which statement best distinguishes linting from static analysis?

• A. Linting checks style and simple rules
• B. Linting finds memory leaks
• C. Static analysis inspects deeper issues, potential bugs, and security flaws
• D. Linting compiles code

Answer: (A)

Linting targets code style and simple rules, giving quick feedback on formatting, naming conventions, and obvious quality issues. This is what keeps code consistent and readable, without delving into how the program actually behaves. Static analysis, on the other hand, examines the program more deeply to uncover potential bugs, risky logic, and security flaws by analyzing the code paths and data flow. So the statement that linting checks style and simple rules best distinguishes it from static analysis because it captures the typical scope of what a linter does versus the broader, deeper checks performed by static analysis. The other statements misrepresent linting (it doesn’t catch memory leaks as its primary job) or describe static analysis (it looks for deeper issues) or are incorrect about linting compiling code.