the invention relates to a method and apparatus of simulating memory allocation errors in a software application . the method includes : determining a range of memory block sizes in a memory allocation function which results in a memory allocation failure , the range of memory block sizes defined by a first simulation criteria and including all memory block sizes between a minimum threshold and a maximum threshold ; initializing an application , and simultaneously executing the memory allocation function ; triggering a memory allocation failure if the application requires a memory value within the range of memory block sizes ; and varying the range of memory block sizes based on a second simulation criteria , wherein the first simulation criteria and second simulation criteria are determined by a pre - determined range of memory block sizes for a memory failure simulation .