concurrency

Readers-Writers Problem

The readers-writers problem addresses concurrent access to a shared resource where multiple readers can safely read simultaneously, but writers require exclusive access. A naive mutex blocks all concurrent access, reducing throughput unnecessarily when most operations are reads. The solution uses a read-write lock that distinguishes between shared (read) and exclusive (write) access. This pattern is critical for high-read, low-write workloads like caches and configuration stores.