You will often encounter OS crashes when using VSCODE on a rpi3 for debugging. The cause: memory overflow and too low swap size. If you set the swap memory to 1024MB you will have solved the problem.
Follow these steps (source https://nebl.io/neblio-university/enabling-increasing-raspberry-pi-swap/) ->
1. Temporarily Stop Swap:
sudo dphys-swapfile swapoff
2. Modify the size of the swap
As root, edit the file /etc/dphys-swapfile and modify the variable CONF_SWAPSIZE to 1024:
CONF_SWAPSIZE=1024
Using a command such as:
sudo nano /etc/dphys-swapfile
3. Initialize Swap File
sudo dphys-swapfile setup
4. Start Swap
sudo dphys-swapfile swapo