I thought virtual threads replaced the need for Netty and event loops. Then I built both models from scratch and benchmarked them. Virtual threads didn’t kill event loops they made blocking I/O viable for most cases. But event loops still win for ultra-high connection counts. Here’s when each approach wins.
I thought virtual threads were just green threads—turns out they’re continuations on the heap with sophisticated scheduling. Here’s what I got wrong and what actually happens under the hood.
Part 3: Advanced Patterns & Production Readiness - Deep dive into 3 advanced tools plus debugging, monitoring, and going to production
Part 2: Core Synchronization Patterns - Deep dive into 4 essential coordination tools with real-world patterns, performance characteristics, and common pitfalls
Part 1: Foundation & Execution - Deep dive into 6 essential concurrency tools with real-world patterns, performance characteristics, and common pitfalls