What is the difference between Mutex and Monitor mechanisms in thread synchronization?

Mutex and Monitor — both are used for thread synchronization, but have some differences:

• Mutex — is a synchronization primitive at the operating system level. It can be used to synchronize between threads in the same or different processes. Mutex provides exclusive access to a resource and can be explicitly acquired and released.

• Monitor — is a higher-level mechanism built into the C# language. It works only within a single process and provides object locking. Monitor automatically associates the lock with an object and supports additional features, such as waiting and notification (Wait/Pulse).

Example of using Monitor in C#:

lock(obj) {
    // critical section
}

Here, lock is syntactic sugar for Monitor.Enter and Monitor.Exit.

In summary:

• Mutex can work between processes, Monitor only within a process.
• Monitor is simpler and more convenient to use in C# for thread synchronization within an application.