What are thread-safe data structures and their performance?

What are thread-safe data structures and why are they important?

Thread-safe data structures are designed to be safely accessed by multiple threads simultaneously. They prevent data corruption and ensure consistency.

Can you give examples of thread-safe data structures?

Sure! Common examples include ConcurrentHashMap in Java, synchronized lists, and thread-safe queues like BlockingQueue.

How does the performance of these structures compare to non-thread-safe ones?

Thread-safe structures often have overhead due to locking mechanisms, which can slow down performance compared to non-thread-safe structures, especially under high contention.

When should I use thread-safe structures?

You should use them when your application involves multiple threads that need to read from or write to shared data to avoid race conditions.