Blocking is the New Non-Blocking

Java threads have worked the same way for nearly 30 years. When too many users hit your application at once, you either throw more hardware at the problem or rewrite your code in a complex reactive style that most developers find hard to read and harder to debug.

Java 25 finally offers a better way. This talk explains what threads are, why they struggle under heavy load, and how Virtual Threads solve that problem without forcing you to rewrite anything. We also cover two new Java 25 features, Structured Concurrency and Scoped Values, that make writing concurrent code safer and cleaner than ever before. No experience with concurrency needed.

Garima Agarwal

Garima is a software engineer and community leader with strong expertise in Java, backend development, and cloud-native technologies, specializing in building scalable, high performance distributed systems. She has worked across complex domains including banking, insurance, mortgage, e-commerce, and government, collaborating with some of the world’s largest organizations in these sectors.

An IEEE Senior Member, Garima is an active speaker at major global technology conferences and a frequent judge at hackathons and innovation programs, where she mentors and supports emerging talent. She is also an active book reviewer with major publications. Garima is deeply passionate about Java and the evolving intersection of Java and AI.

Committed to fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing, Garima actively contributes to growing and strengthening developer communities. She is also passionate about supporting women in technology.