Pessimistic vs Optimistic Locking

Locks are essential in multi-user applications to ensure data consistency and integrity. Pessimistic locking preemptively locks data to prevent conflicts, making it suitable for critical updates but reducing concurrency. Optimistic locking, on the other hand, assumes conflicts are rare, allowing for higher concurrency without initial locks but requiring conflict checks at commit time. Implementing the right locking strategy involves considering data patterns and optimizing based on system needs. Best practices include minimizing lock durations, using fine-grained locks, and preparing for retries in optimistic locking scenarios.