What is difference between Process and Thread in java?

Java Interview Questions and Answers (part 4)

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2. What is difference between Process and Thread in java?

One process can have multiple Threads,
Thread are subdivision of Process. One or more Threads runs in the context of process. Threads can execute any part of process. And same part of process can be executed by multiple Threads.
Processes have their own copy of the data segment of the parent process while Threads have direct access to the data segment of its process.
Processes have their own address while Threads share the address space of the process that created it.
Process creation needs whole lot of stuff to be done, we might need to copy whole parent process, but Thread can be easily created.
Processes can easily communicate with child processes but interprocess communication is difficult. While, Threads can easily communicate with other threads of the same process using wait() and notify() methods.
In process all threads share system resource like heap Memory etc. while Thread has its own stack.
Any change made to process does not affect child processes, but any change made to thread can affect the behavior of the other threads of the process.

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Other Interview Questions

• Output question 16.
• Suppose you have 2 threads (Thread-1 and Thread-2) on same object. Thread-1 is in synchronized method1(), can Thread-2 enter synchronized method2() at same time?
• Output question 15.
• Can we acquire lock on class? What are ways in which you can acquire lock on class?
• What is life cycle of Thread, explain thread states? (
• Difference between wait() and sleep() ?
• Output question 2.
• Output question 6.
• We should implement Runnable interface or extend Thread class. What are differences between implementing Runnable and extending Thread?
• Output question 9.
• More...