When working with channels, how do you decide between buffered and unbuffered channels?

The choice between buffered and unbuffered channels in Go depends on synchronization and performance requirements:

• Unbuffered channels (buffer size = 0) provide strict synchronization between sender and receiver: sending blocks until someone reads the value. This is useful when you need to guarantee that data is processed immediately and for coordination between goroutines.

• Buffered channels allow sending multiple values without immediate receipt, increasing parallelism and reducing blocking. They are used when the receiver can process data with delay or when smoothing out load spikes.

Summary:

• If strict synchronization and order of processing are important — choose an unbuffered channel.
• If asynchronous operation and increased throughput are needed — use a buffered channel.

Example:

ch := make(chan int)       // unbuffered
chBuf := make(chan int, 10) // buffered with size 10