What kind of loop continues to execute indefinitely?

An infinite loop is a type of loop that continues to execute without termination unless an external intervention occurs, such as a break statement or a system interrupt. This situation arises when the loop's condition is always true, or when there is no exit condition defined at all.

In contrast, a conditional loop and a "for" loop are designed with specific conditions that will eventually fail, causing the loop to terminate. A "do-while" loop, while it guarantees at least one run of the loop body, still relies on a condition that will control its execution and lead it to stop after some iterations. These loops are constructed with termination criteria, unlike an infinite loop, which lacks such conditions and thus can run indefinitely.

Understanding infinite loops is crucial in programming because they can lead to unresponsive applications or resource exhaustion if not controlled properly.