Catch-22 /ˌkætʃ twentiˈtuː/ BrE AmE noun [uncountable]
[ Date: 1900-2000 ; Origin: Catch-22 book (1961) by Joseph Heller in which such situations are described ]
an impossible situation that you cannot solve because you need to do one thing in order to do a second thing, but you cannot do the second thing until you have done the first:
It’s a Catch-22 situation – without experience you can’t get a job and without a job you can’t get experience.