Daily Term: Mutex

Mutex

A Mutex (Mutual Exclusion) is a synchronization mechanism that ensures only one thread can access a shared resource at a time, preventing race conditions. For example, in a multi-threaded C++ program, a mutex might lock a shared counter while one thread updates it, blocking other threads until the lock is released. Mutexes ensure thread safety but can lead to deadlocks if not used carefully, and they may impact performance due to blocking.

Date: 2025-08-12