#51 | What is the volatile keyword? How is it different from synchronization? | Java Interview

In this video, we explain what the volatile keyword is and how it is different from synchronized — a very common Java multithreading interview question that tests your understanding of visibility vs atomicity. Most developers confuse volatile with synchronization. Interviews don’t. 👨‍💻 What you’ll learn: • What volatile actually guarantees • Why threads sometimes don’t see updated values • Visibility vs atomicity (the real difference) • Why volatile does NOT prevent race conditions • When to use volatile, synchronized, or AtomicInteger 🧠 Key concepts explained simply: • volatile ensures latest value visibility across threads • It does NOT lock anything • It does NOT make operations atomic • count++ can still break even if count is volatile ⚠️ Interview trap: Many people say “volatile is thread-safe” ❌ Correct answer: volatile fixes visibility, not race conditions 🎯 Interview-ready answer: volatile guarantees visibility of changes across threads, while synchronized provides visibility + atomicity by locking and preventing multiple threads from executing critical code at the same time. Perfect for Core Java, Multithreading, Backend interviews, and system-level understanding. #Java #Volatile #Synchronized #Multithreading #Concurrency #CoreJava #JavaInterview #Wipro #TCS #Accenture #Infosys #Cognizant #Capgemini #HCL #BackendEngineering