Synchronization Primitives
Synchronization primitives are fundamental programming constructs used to coordinate access to shared resources and manage concurrent execution in multi-threaded or distributed systems. They prevent race conditions, deadlocks, and ensure data consistency by controlling how threads or processes interact with critical sections of code. Common examples include mutexes, semaphores, condition variables, and barriers.
Developers should learn synchronization primitives when building applications with concurrency, such as multi-threaded servers, real-time systems, or parallel data processing, to avoid data corruption and ensure thread safety. They are essential in operating systems, database management, and high-performance computing where multiple execution flows access shared memory or resources simultaneously.