What is the difference between optimistic and pessimistic locking, and when should you use each?

**Optimistic locking** is a strategy that: - Assumes conflicts are rare and don’t happen that often. - Allows for concurrent data access. - Checks if there are conflicts before committing. - It’s best used in high-read, low-write scenarios. **Pessimistic locking**, on the other hand, is a strategy that: - Assumes conflicts to be very common. - Locks data and prevents concurrent access. - Holds these locks for the duration of a transaction. - It’s best suited for high-write scenarios or when data integrity is critical.