Race condition problem in Operating Systems - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Understanding Race Condition Problem

📖 Scenario: You are learning about how multiple processes or threads can access shared data in a computer system. Sometimes, if they try to change the data at the same time without proper control, it causes unexpected results. This is called a race condition.Imagine two people trying to withdraw money from the same bank account at the same time without knowing about each other. This can cause errors in the balance.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple example that shows how a race condition happens when two processes try to update the same variable without coordination.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a shared variable representing a bank account balance

Create two separate processes or threads that try to withdraw money

Show how the balance can become incorrect due to race condition

Add a simple control variable to illustrate the problem clearly

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Race conditions happen in multitasking computer systems when processes or threads share data without proper synchronization. Understanding this helps prevent bugs in software.

💼 Career

Software developers, system programmers, and testers need to understand race conditions to write safe concurrent programs and avoid data corruption.

1

Create the shared bank account balance

Create a variable called balance and set it to 100 to represent the initial bank account balance.

Operating Systems

# Create the shared bank account balance
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a simple variable named balance and assign it the value 100.

2

Create withdrawal amounts for two processes

Create two variables called withdraw1 and withdraw2 and set them to 70 and 50 respectively to represent the amounts two processes want to withdraw.

Operating Systems

balance = 100
# Create withdrawal amounts for two processes
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use two variables named withdraw1 and withdraw2 with values 70 and 50.

3

Simulate race condition by updating balance without control

Write two lines that subtract withdraw1 and withdraw2 from balance one after the other, simulating two processes withdrawing money without coordination.

Operating Systems

balance = 100
withdraw1 = 70
withdraw2 = 50
# Subtract withdraw1 and withdraw2 from balance without control
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Subtract withdraw1 and then withdraw2 from balance using two separate statements.

4

Add a control variable to illustrate race condition problem

Add a variable called control and set it to False to represent lack of coordination causing the race condition.

Operating Systems

balance = 100
withdraw1 = 70
withdraw2 = 50
balance = balance - withdraw1
balance = balance - withdraw2
# Add a control variable to show race condition
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a variable named control and assign it False to show no coordination.