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Explain the difference between lock, Monitor, Mutex, Semaphore, SpinLock, and ReaderWriterLockSlim.

Expert C#
Quick Answer lock and Monitor: lightweight, process-local, same thread only. Mutex: cross-process, heavier, supports named mutexes. Semaphore: limits N concurrent threads. SpinLock: avoids context switch for very short critical sections. ReaderWriterLockSlim: allows many concurrent readers but exclusive write access.

Answer

Differences:

  • lock/Monitor: lightweight, thread-level.
  • Mutex: cross-process synchronization.
  • Semaphore: limits concurrent entries.
  • SpinLock: busy-wait for low contention.
  • ReaderWriterLockSlim: optimized for read-heavy workloads.
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