Differences between Mutex and Semaphore

Question

Accepted Answer

Mutex is used for mutual exclusion while Semaphore is used for signaling and synchronization.

Mutex is used to protect a shared resource from simultaneous access by multiple threads.
Semaphore is used to signal between threads or to limit the number of threads accessing a shared resource.
Mutex can only be locked and unlocked by the thread that locked it.
Semaphore can be signaled and waited on by different threads.
Mutex is binary, meaning it has only two states: locked and unlocked.
Semaphore can have multiple states, depending on the number of threads allowed to access the shared resource.
Example of Mutex: Locking a file while it is being written to by one thread.
Example of Semaphore: Limiting the number of connections to a database to prevent overload.

Top Tejas Networks interview questions & answers