Question 26 of 481
1Z0-811 Control Flow and Loops Practice Question
You are tuning a real-time data processing application that reads sensor data from a queue. The system must process each sensor reading, but occasionally a reading is invalid (null) and should be skipped. The loop must run indefinitely until the application is shut down gracefully. The current implementation uses a while(true) loop with a break condition when a shutdown flag is set. However, the loop is consuming excessive CPU because it continuously polls the queue even when no data is available. You need to modify the loop to reduce CPU usage while still processing data efficiently. Which approach should you take?
⚠ Common exam trap
Oracle often tests the misconception that adding a sleep or yield is sufficient to solve CPU thrashing, when in fact only a blocking design (like `BlockingQueue`) eliminates the polling loop entirely and is the idiomatic Java solution.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Replace the polling mechanism with a blocking queue that blocks until data is available.
Using a blocking queue (e.g., `BlockingQueue.take()`) causes the consumer thread to block automatically until data becomes available, eliminating busy-waiting and drastically reducing CPU usage. This is the standard pattern for producer-consumer scenarios in Java, as it leverages the underlying `notify`/`wait` mechanism to avoid polling overhead.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Change the while(true) loop to a for loop that iterates a fixed number of times.
Why it's wrong here
Fixed iteration does not allow infinite processing.
- ✓
Replace the polling mechanism with a blocking queue that blocks until data is available.
Why this is correct
Blocking queue blocks the thread, reducing CPU usage.
- ✗
Add a Thread.sleep(100) inside the loop to reduce polling frequency.
Why it's wrong here
Sleep introduces latency and may not eliminate busy-waiting.
- ✗
Use a do-while loop with a Thread.yield() call to give other threads CPU time.
Why it's wrong here
yield() may not reduce CPU usage significantly.
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Last reviewed: Jun 30, 2026
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