As Christian Heimes describes it here, Python uses its own memory allocator for small objects (< 257 bytes). Larger objects are allocated directly with malloc, smaller objects end up in arenas. The code is well documented in obmalloc.c.
Classes with a del method may create reference cycles. The GC can't break cycles when a del method is involved.
- keeping references to tracebacks, exception objects (except Exception, err) or frames (sys._getframe())
Related information: