What is the most direct risk of “unbounded loops” in on-chain code?

Unbounded loops can make a function exceed block gas limits as state grows, permanently preventing execution. This becomes a real denial-of-service risk in airdrops, reward claims, holder iteration, governance cleanup, and array clearing logic. In smart contract developer interviews, this question tests whether a candidate can connect gas limits, production scale, and secure contract design instead of only writing code that works in a small test case. If this topic appears in interviews, use AOB’s Smart Contract Interview Prep Hub to connect gas limits, denial-of-service risk, Solidity reasoning, and production-scale smart contract design into a clearer interview answer.