QUESTION 26 OF 30

Can you describe some of the differences between concurrency and parallelism?

Sometimes the Amazon interviewer will ask you about two terms that seem to be similar but are slightly different. Only the most qualified solutions architects will be familiar with the nuances of these types of terms. An excellent way to answer a question like this is to first explain the terms' similarities and then contrast, demonstrating that you are aware of their differences.

"Concurrency and parallelism both describe tasks running in the same time periods. The difference between these is the concurrency addresses two or more tasks running on overlapping time periods. In contrast, parallelism refers to tasks that are identical and are running at the same time. An example of these is that concurrency is two tasks running on a single core machine that overlap, with one starting first and the other ending last. Parallelism is two tasks running at the same time a multiple-core processor."

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Amazon Solutions Architect Mock Interview

Can you describe some of the differences between concurrency and parallelism?

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