Common problems when using multiple threads
Threading introduces several challenges that must be managed to ensure application correctness and performance. These challenges arise from the inherent concurrency and non-deterministic nature of multithreaded programming.
- Race conditions occur when multiple threads access and modify shared data concurrently. The outcome of a race condition depends on the non-deterministic sequencing of threads’ operations, which can lead to unpredictable and inconsistent results. For example, consider two threads that are updating a shared counter. If the threads increment the counter concurrently, the final value may be incorrect due to a race condition.
- Deadlocks occur when two or more threads wait indefinitely for resources held by each other. This creates a cycle of dependencies that cannot be resolved, causing the threads to become permanently blocked. For instance, consider two threads that are waiting for each other to release...
