Frequently Asked Questions

Q.1: What is a race condition?

Answer:

A race condition occurs when multiple processes or threads access shared data concurrently, and the final outcome of the program depends on the relative timing of their execution. This can lead to unexpected and undesired results, such as data corruption, incorrect calculations, or program crashes.

Q.2: How can race conditions be avoided?

Answer:

Race conditions can be avoided by implementing mutual exclusion techniques, such as locks, semaphores, or monitors. These techniques ensure that only one process or thread can access a shared resource at a time, preventing simultaneous conflicting accesses and maintaining data integrity.

Q.3: What is a deadlock?

Answer:

A deadlock is a situation in concurrent programming where two or more processes or threads are unable to proceed because each is waiting for the other to release a resource. As a result, the processes or threads are stuck in a state of waiting indefinitely, leading to a system freeze or unresponsiveness.

During concurrent execution of processes, processes need to enter the critical section (or the section of the program shared across processes) at times for execution. It might happen that because of the execution of multiple processes at once, the values stored in the critical section become inconsistent. In other words, the values depend on the sequence of execution of instructions – also known as a race condition. The primary task of process synchronization is to get rid of race conditions while executing the critical section.

This is primarily achieved through mutual exclusion.