When do you use threads?

This episode explores the complexities and appropriate use cases of threads in backend software engineering. Against the backdrop of explaining the differences between processes and threads, the speaker highlights the challenges associated with threads, such as race conditions and shared state management. More significantly, the discussion delves into three key scenarios where utilizing threads proves beneficial: handling blocking I/O operations (like logging to disk), managing CPU-intensive tasks alongside other frequent requests, and processing large volumes of small, predictable tasks to enhance throughput. For instance, the speaker illustrates how threads can improve the efficiency of a backend API by offloading CPU-bound operations to a thread pool, allowing the main process to handle new requests concurrently. In contrast, the speaker also cautions against the complexities of debugging multi-threaded applications and suggests alternative approaches like socket sharding for connection acceptance to mitigate these challenges. Ultimately, this episode provides practical guidance on when and how to leverage threads effectively in backend development, emphasizing the trade-offs between performance gains and the inherent complexities of multi-threaded programming.