A deadlock in DB2 occurs when ________ transactions are waiting for each other to release locks.

A deadlock in DB2 arises when two or more transactions are waiting for each other to release locks that they hold. This situation creates a circular dependency, where each transaction is waiting for a resource held by another transaction, resulting in a stalemate. Deadlocks can occur in scenarios where transactions acquire locks on resources in a different order, leading to a situation where none of the transactions can proceed further, ultimately requiring intervention, such as rollback or deadlock detection mechanisms, to resolve the impasse.