How does memory allocation of an ArrayList work?

Question

As far as I know, when we are creating an ArrayList:

ArrayList list = new ArrayList(SIZE);

The JVM res

Answer 1

If JVM is not able to allocate requested amount of memory it'll throw

OutOfMemoryError

That's it. Actually JVM memory allocation has only two possible outcomes:

1. Application is given requested amount of memory.
2. JVM throws OutOfMemoryError.

There is no intermediate options, like some amount of memory is allocated.

It has nothing to do with ArrayList, it's a JVM issue. If you asking whether ArrayList somehow manages this situation in a special way - then answer is "No, it does not." It just tries to allocate amount of memory it needs and lets JVM think about the rest.