Smart Pointers vs Raw Pointers in Modern C++

[kavinreed]

Hi everyone,

I'm fairly new to C++ coming from a Python background and I'm struggling to understand when to use smart pointers versus raw pointers. I understand the general principle that smart pointers handle memory automatically, but I'm not sure when it's actually appropriate to use a raw pointer in modern C++ and whether there are cases where smart pointers would be overkill or cause issues.

Any practical guidance on how to think about this decision would be really appreciated!