the Dining Philosophers problem

The Dining Philosophers problem illustrates the challenge of managing shared resources without causing conflicts or deadlock. Imagine five philosophers sitting around a table, each needing two forks to eat. They must coordinate to share forks—taking one when they want to eat and releasing it afterwards. If all pick up their left fork simultaneously, they may wait indefinitely for the right one, causing a deadlock. This problem models issues in concurrent computing, highlighting the importance of proper synchronization to ensure all processes (or philosophers) can proceed efficiently without getting stuck.