Fundamentals

Processes vs Threads
Main : Processes are executed by threads
Memory
Stack
Stack allocation called by function
Each function gets its own memory for local variables
Freed immediately when function ends
Too many function calls exceed stack capacity -> stack overflow error (JAVA) / segmentation fault (CPP)
Heap
Manual deallocation required
Accessible by multiple threads
Heap is persistent until program termination
Memory leak : allocated data is not freed after use
File I/O
Concurrency
Scheduling
System Calls
 
Processes vs Threads
Process: own address space
Thread: shared address space
Context switching overhead
When threads help vs hurt
Memory
Stack vs heap
Virtual memory
Paging vs segmentation
What a segmentation fault actually is
Memory leaks and how they happen
File I/O
File descriptors
stdin/stdout/stderr
Blocking vs non-blocking I/O
Concurrency
Race conditions
Mutex vs semaphore
Deadlocks (4 conditions)
Scheduling
Preemptive vs cooperative
CPU-bound vs I/O-bound
System calls
What they are
Why they exist
User mode vs kernel mode
Practice explaining out loud
If she asks:
“What happens when a program starts?”
You should mention:
Executable loaded
Virtual memory allocated
Stack/heap setup
Entry point (
main)
Syscalls for I/O