Heap memory is a common pool of dynamic memory used for allocating objects and data structures during program execution. It is part of RAM and allows for longer-lived allocations compared to stack memory. When the heap is full, garbage collection clears unused objects to free up space. Linked lists are linear data structures composed of nodes containing a data field and a pointer to the next node. They allow for dynamic sizes and efficient insertions/deletions unlike arrays. Doubly linked lists include pointers to both the next and previous nodes, allowing traversal in both directions but requiring more space.