Advanced Python Programming

The concept of race conditions

A race condition is typically defined as a phenomenon during which the output of a system is indeterminate and dependent on the scheduling algorithm and the order in which tasks are scheduled and executed. When the data becomes mishandled and corrupted during this process, a race condition becomes a bug in the system. Given the nature of this problem, it is quite common for a race condition to occur in concurrent systems, which emphasize scheduling and coordinating independent tasks.

A race condition can occur in both an electronic hardware system and a software application; in this chapter, we will only be discussing race conditions in the context of software development—specifically, concurrent software applications. ...