Completely Fair Queuing (CFQ)

Completely Fair Queuing (CFQ) is a scheduling algorithm used by operating systems to manage how multiple tasks access storage devices, like a hard drive or SSD. CFQ divides the device’s workload into separate queues for each process, ensuring that all tasks get a fair share of the resources, preventing any single process from monopolizing the disk. It dynamically allocates time based on each process’s needs, balancing responsiveness and throughput. This results in smoother multitasking, improved performance, and reduced delays, especially during heavy disk usage, by equitably distributing access among all active processes.