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Texas Instruments technical mcq question, verified with a worked answer. Free to practise - no sign-up.
Managing deadlocks**
Read the following statements about deadlocks carefully and choose the correct option.
Show answer & explanation
Circular wait is one of the four necessary Coffman conditions for deadlock, but it is not sufficient on its own when multiple instances of resource types exist.
Step-by-step Derivation:
Step 1: Coffman's necessary conditions for deadlock are: Mutual Exclusion, Hold and Wait, No Preemption, and Circular Wait. Thus Circular Wait is a necessary condition (Statement A is true).
Step 2: If resources have multiple instances, a cycle (circular wait) does not guarantee a deadlock because another process holding an instance outside the cycle may release it. Thus Circular Wait is not sufficient (Statement B is false).
Step 3: Option B (A is true, B is false) is correct.