Understanding Optimistic and Pessimistic Locking in Ruby on Rails
Jan 3, 2025
When several people touch a database simultaneously, software conflicts can occur when more than one user tries to update the same record. The most sought-after way to avoid problems from this point of view is to lock the record the first user needs to change. Such conflicts are dealt with in Ruby on Rails using two locking strategies: Optimistic Locking and Pessimistic Locking. This article discusses these strategies, their differences, and how they can be implemented in Ruby on Rails.