What is the difference between a goroutine and a system thread in the context of task execution?

A goroutine is a lightweight, managed unit of execution within the Go runtime that uses very little memory and can be run in large numbers simultaneously. A system thread is a heavier unit of scheduling by the operating system.

Main differences:

• Goroutines are much lighter in resources than system threads.
• Goroutine scheduling occurs within the Go runtime, not the OS.
• Thousands of goroutines can run concurrently, whereas system threads are usually fewer due to the overhead of creation and switching.

Example of creating a goroutine:

func task() {
    fmt.Println("Executing task")
}

func main() {
    go task() // start goroutine
    time.Sleep(time.Second) // wait for the goroutine to finish
}

Thus, goroutines allow efficient execution of many tasks in parallel with lower overhead.