Why can the wait() and notify() methods only be called inside a synchronized block?

The wait() and notify() methods work with an object's monitor, which provides the thread synchronization mechanism. To call wait() or notify(), the thread must own the object's monitor, meaning it must be inside a synchronized block.

Reasons:

• wait() releases the monitor and puts the thread into a waiting state so that other threads can access the resource.
• notify() notifies waiting threads that the state of the object has changed.

Calling these methods outside of synchronized blocks will result in an IllegalMonitorStateException because managing the wait and notify states requires owning the monitor for correct operation and to prevent race conditions.