Concurrency in C++: Threads, Mutexes, Async

Modern C++ (C++11/14/17/20) provides standardized multithreading primitives in the <thread>, <mutex>, and <future> headers.

Primitives

• std::thread: Starts a new execution thread. Remember to join() or detach().
• std::mutex: Mutual exclusion to prevent data races. Always use std::lock_guard or std::unique_lock for RAII safety.
• std::atomic: Lock-free thread-safe operations on primitives.

std::async

Spawns a task and returns a std::future. Provides a higher-level abstraction than threads.