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If a system uses a naive lock acquisition strategy that causes livelock under high contention, what is the best follow-up improvement to prevent livelock without sacrificing throughput?

hard🎤 Interviewer Follow-up Q10 of Q15

Operating Systems - Starvation vs Deadlock vs Livelock - Differences & Examples

If a system uses a naive lock acquisition strategy that causes livelock under high contention, what is the best follow-up improvement to prevent livelock without sacrificing throughput?

ARemove locks and use busy-waiting instead.

BIncrease lock granularity to reduce contention.

CIntroduce randomized backoff delays before retrying lock acquisition.

DUse strict priority scheduling to favor certain threads.

Step-by-Step Solution

Solution:

Step 1: Understand livelock cause
Livelock occurs when threads repeatedly retry locks simultaneously, preventing progress.
Step 2: Evaluate improvements
Introduce randomized backoff delays before retrying lock acquisition.: Randomized backoff reduces simultaneous retries, preventing livelock.
Increase lock granularity to reduce contention.: Increasing lock granularity may reduce contention but not prevent livelock.
Remove locks and use busy-waiting instead.: Busy-waiting wastes CPU and can worsen livelock.
Use strict priority scheduling to favor certain threads.: Strict priority scheduling may cause starvation, not livelock prevention.
Final Answer:
Option C -> Option C
Quick Check:
Random backoff breaks livelock cycles [OK]

Quick Trick: Random backoff breaks livelock cycles [OK]

Common Mistakes:

MISTAKES

Assuming busy-waiting helps
Thinking priority scheduling fixes livelock
Ignoring backoff strategies

Trap Explanation:

PITFALL

Candidates often overlook randomized backoff as a livelock solution, mistakenly favoring priority or busy-waiting.

Interviewer Note:

CONTEXT

Tests deep understanding of livelock mitigation techniques.

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