What is starvation in operating systems?

a) A situation where low-priority processes wait indefinitely because higher-priority processes continuously take precedence

b) A technique for reducing process execution time

c) A method for managing memory allocation

d) A condition caused by insufficient memory for process execution

Answer:

a) A situation where low-priority processes wait indefinitely because higher-priority processes continuously take precedence

Explanation:

Starvation in an operating system occurs when low-priority processes are not given CPU time because higher-priority processes continually take precedence. This can happen in priority-based scheduling algorithms, where lower-priority processes may get neglected if there are always higher-priority tasks in the queue.

In a starvation situation, the system can become unbalanced, as some processes may never get the resources they need to complete execution. This can lead to inefficiency and the potential for certain tasks to remain incomplete indefinitely.

To prevent starvation, techniques such as aging can be used, where the priority of a process gradually increases the longer it waits, ensuring that even low-priority processes eventually get CPU time.

Reference:

Operating System MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions)