What is Demand Paging in Operating Systems?
This question explores a memory management technique where pages are loaded only when needed. It tests advanced OS knowledge.
Why Interviewers Ask This
Demand paging optimizes memory usage significantly. Interviewers want to ensure you understand page faults and lazy loading. This is critical for performance tuning.
How to Answer This Question
Define demand paging as loading pages into memory only when referenced. Explain the role of page faults. Discuss the benefit of not loading unused pages. Mention copy-on-write and swapping. Connect to virtual memory concepts.
Key Points to Cover
- Lazy loading concept
- Page fault handling
- Efficiency benefits
- Copy-on-write relation
Sample Answer
Demand paging is a memory management scheme where pages are loaded into physical memory only when a process references them. If a page is missing, a page fault occurs, triggering the OS to fetch it from disk. This approach avoids wasting memory on unused pages, improving efficiency. Copy-on-write further optimizes this by delaying copying until modification. It is a cornerstone of modern virtual memory systems.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Confusing with pre-paging
- Ignoring page faults
- No efficiency discussion
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