Question

    Which of the following is the main advantage of using the Round Robin CPU Scheduling algorithm over First-Come-First-Serve (FCFS) in terms of process execution time fairness? 

    A Round Robin scheduling minimizes the average turnaround time Correct Answer Incorrect Answer
    B Round Robin scheduling eliminates the occurrence of starvation Correct Answer Incorrect Answer
    C Round Robin scheduling increases the CPU utilization compared to FCFS Correct Answer Incorrect Answer
    D Round Robin scheduling ensures that processes are executed in the order they arrive Correct Answer Incorrect Answer
    E Round Robin scheduling minimizes the average waiting time Correct Answer Incorrect Answer

    Solution

    Round Robin (RR) scheduling is a preemptive CPU scheduling algorithm that ensures every process gets an equal share of CPU time by allocating a fixed time slice or quantum to each process. This prevents starvation, where a process could be indefinitely delayed in FCFS or other non-preemptive scheduling algorithms. In FCFS, long processes can block short ones, leading to starvation for the latter. In contrast, RR’s fairness ensures that no process is neglected for too long, thus preventing starvation. Option A (Minimizes average turnaround time): This is incorrect because Round Robin may lead to longer turnaround times compared to FCFS, especially when the time quantum is too large or too small. Turnaround time can be higher due to context switching overheads. Option C (Increases CPU utilization): RR doesn’t inherently increase CPU utilization more than FCFS. In fact, it might decrease CPU utilization due to frequent context switching. Option D (Ensures processes are executed in the order they arrive): RR does not always execute processes in the order they arrive; it executes them in a circular manner based on time slices, which might not match their arrival order. Option E (Minimizes average waiting time): RR often results in a higher average waiting time compared to algorithms like Shortest Job First (SJF) because of the time slice distribution, making this option incorrect.

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