In a database, a deadlock is a situation that occurs when two or more different database sessions have some data locked, and each database session requests a lock on the data that another, different, session has already locked. Because the sessions are waiting for each other, nothing can get done, and the sessions just waste time instead. This scenario where nothing happens because of sessions waiting indefinitely for each other is known as deadlock.
Database deadlock example:
Suppose we have two database sessions called A and B. Let’s say that session A requests and has a lock on some data – and let’s call the data Y. And then session B has a lock on some data that we will call Z. But now, lets say that session A needs a lock on data Z in order to run another SQL statement, but that lock is currently held by session B. And, let’s say that session B needs a lock on data Y, but that lock is currently held by session A. This means that session B is waiting on session A’s lock and session B is waiting for session A’s lock. And this is what deadlock is all about!