# Blocking vs. Non-blocking ## What are Blocking and Non-blocking? * In programming and computer systems, these are two main approaches related to **how operations are executed**. * The key difference between blocking and non-blocking is **the persistence of the operation** and **concurrent processing**. ## Blocking * **A situation where, while one operation is being executed, other operations must wait until that operation is finished**. * This means the system's resources and control are **exclusively held** by the blocking operation until it completes. * As a result, other operations must wait for the blocking operation to finish, which can affect overall system performance. ## Non-blocking * While one operation is being executed, **other operations can proceed concurrently**, and there is **no mutual waiting** between operations. * In the non-blocking approach, **the persistence of operations is reduced**, so **overall system performance improves**, and even if one operation fails, other operations can continue. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://ella-yeonsu-choi.gitbook.io/cs-study/en/deep-dive/blocking_nonblocking.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.