Snapshot Isolation
Snapshot Isolation is a concurrency control mechanism in database systems that provides transaction isolation by allowing each transaction to read from a consistent snapshot of the database as it existed at the start of the transaction. It prevents dirty reads, non-repeatable reads, and phantom reads without requiring locks on read operations, improving performance in read-heavy workloads. This is commonly implemented in databases like PostgreSQL, Oracle, and SQL Server to enhance concurrency and consistency.
Developers should learn and use Snapshot Isolation when building applications that require high concurrency with consistent reads, such as financial systems, e-commerce platforms, or analytics dashboards where multiple users query data simultaneously without blocking writes. It is particularly useful in scenarios with long-running read transactions or when avoiding lock contention is critical for performance, as it allows reads to proceed without interfering with concurrent writes.