How can mutual exclusion situations be avoided in systems?

Deadlock occurs when multiple threads or processes wait for each other without releasing resources. To avoid deadlock, the following methods are used:

• Avoid cyclic dependencies: order resource acquisition in a consistent manner.
• Use timeouts when attempting to acquire locks, to prevent waiting indefinitely.
• Apply detection and recovery algorithms: periodically check for deadlocks and interrupt one of the processes.
• Use higher-level synchronization constructs that minimize the risk of deadlock.

For example, if two threads need to acquire two resources A and B, always acquire them in the same order (first A, then B) — this prevents deadlock.