Can you explain what a thread scheduler is in an operating system?

The thread scheduler in an operating system is a component that manages the distribution of CPU time among execution threads. Its task is to determine which thread and when should run to ensure efficient CPU utilization and fair resource distribution.

The scheduler considers thread priorities, their states (ready, waiting for resources, etc.), and various scheduling policies (e.g., priority-based, round-robin, time quanta). In Java, for example, the OS scheduler manages JVM threads, switching them on the CPU according to these rules.

Example: if you have several threads, the scheduler will switch execution between them so that all can progress, especially when there are more threads than available CPU cores.