Interview Q&A / Operating Systems
Operating Systems interview questions
Processes, threads, scheduling, memory and deadlocks, in plain words.
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- What is the difference between a mutex and a semaphore?
A mutex is a lock that lets only one thread into a critical section at a time, and only the thread that locked it should unlock it. A semaphore is a counter that allows up to N threads to use a resource at once, and any thread can signal it, which also makes it useful for one thread to notify another.
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