Mutual exclusion

Mutual exclusion is like when you go to the bathroom and lock the door so nobody else can come in while you are using it. It means that only one person can use the bathroom at a time and nobody else can come in until you are finished.

Similarly, in a computer program, mutual exclusion means that only one process can access a particular piece of data or resource at a time. This is important because if multiple processes try to access the same resource at once, they might interfere with each other and cause errors or unwanted behavior.

So, just like the bathroom door, mutual exclusion ensures that only one process can access a resource at a time, preventing problems and keeping everything running smoothly.