Final answer:
Race condition occurs when multiple processes or threads read and write data items, which can lead to data inconsistency. Critical sections can be used to avoid race conditions and ensure exclusive access to shared data.
Step-by-step explanation:
Race condition occurs when multiple processes or threads read and write data items, and the final value is determined by the order in which the processes or threads execute.
This can lead to data inconsistency where different processes or threads might have different views of the data.
In order to avoid race conditions and data inconsistency, critical sections can be used to allow only one process or thread to access the shared data at a time.