Elixir Concurrency

Concurrency in Elixir is centered on isolated lightweight processes and message passing rather than shared mutable state.

Processes

Processes are cheap and isolated. They are the basic unit for concurrent work on the BEAM.

Message passing

Processes communicate through explicit messages, which keeps ownership and flow visible.

Tasks and monitoring

Use tasks for short-lived async work and monitoring when you need to observe process health.

Practice

  1. Describe one process boundary in a concurrent system.
  2. Explain why message passing is safer than shared mutation.
  3. Write one note about when to prefer a task over a long-lived process.