Concurrency Challenges in Database Transactions: Isolation Levels and Locking Mechanisms

Picture a scenario where users in a banking system initiate fund transfers simultaneously, potentially leading to conflicts and inconsistencies. To address such challenges, we examine isolation levels and locking mechanisms, exploring their role in preventing conflicts during concurrent data modifications

Locking in a database transaction is a mechanism used to control access to shared resources, such as database records or tables, to ensure data consistency and integrity when multiple transactions are executed concurrently. The primary goal of locking is to prevent conflicts that may arise when two or more transactions attempt to access or modify the same data simultaneously.

What is Being Locked?

In distributed systems, where data resides across multiple servers, various resources can be locked, including:

• Data Records: This is the most common, where specific rows or tables in a database are locked to prevent conflicting modifications.
• Files: Shared files, especially those actively being edited, can be locked to avoid corrupted versions from merging.
• Resources: Hardware components like printers or network segments can be locked to ensure exclusive use by…