Explain the difference between process scheduling and context switching.

Explain the difference between process scheduling and context switching.

• A. Context switching selects which process runs next; scheduling saves/restores a process’s state to switch between processes.
• B. Scheduling selects which process runs next; context switching saves/restores a process’s state to switch between processes.
• C. Scheduling handles memory allocation; context switching handles disk I/O.
• D. Scheduling assigns processes to physical CPUs; context switching migrates processes between cores.

Answer: (B)

Scheduling decides which process runs next, selecting from the ready processes based on policy (like round-robin or priority). Context switching is the actual act of switching the CPU from one process to another by saving the current process’s state (registers, program counter, stack pointer) and loading the next process’s state so it can resume. In other words, scheduling picks who should run; context switching performs the switch. Memory allocation or disk I/O handling are separate tasks and aren’t what define these two concepts.

Scheduling decides which process runs next, selecting from the ready processes based on policy (like round-robin or priority). Context switching is the actual act of switching the CPU from one process to another by saving the current process’s state (registers, program counter, stack pointer) and loading the next process’s state so it can resume. In other words, scheduling picks who should run; context switching performs the switch. Memory allocation or disk I/O handling are separate tasks and aren’t what define these two concepts.