Java 21 releases one of the most anticipated features, virtual threads, and previews structured concurrency. It rethinks the way multithreading works in Java. It was born out of the idea that reactive Java is too complicated and blocking threads has to be cheap. Resulting in the new virtual threads that we run thousands of!

The aim of virtual threads and structured concurrency is to have high-throughput lightweight threads and new programming models on the Java platform. In this talk, I will demonstrate virtual threads and how to create and manage them using structured concurrency. Furthermore, I'll provide some practical advice to avoid pitfalls when you start using virtual threads in your application.