What is deadlock in an operating system?

Answer:

Explanation:

Deadlock is a condition in which two or more processes in a system are unable to proceed because each process is waiting for resources that are held by the other processes. This results in a situation where none of the processes can make progress, and the system is effectively stuck.

Deadlock typically occurs in systems where multiple processes share resources, and each process locks a resource while waiting for another, leading to a circular dependency. For deadlock to occur, four conditions must be met: mutual exclusion, hold and wait, no preemption, and circular wait.

Operating systems use deadlock prevention, detection, and recovery techniques to handle potential deadlocks and ensure that system resources are used efficiently and processes do not become permanently blocked.