"Context Switching Explained: How RTOSes Work Internally" When embedded developers first start using an RTOS, tasks often feel simple. You create a task, assign a priority, call a delay function, and the scheduler somehow runs everything. Behind that simple API, however, the RTOS is doing one of the most important operations in embedded software: context switching. Context switching is the mechanism that allows a single CPU core to appear as if it is running multiple tasks at the same time. In reality, the CPU executes only one instruction stream at any instant. The RTOS rapidly saves the state of one task, restores the state of another task, and resumes execution as if nothing happened. Understanding context switching helps you understand how RTOSes work internally. It also makes you better at debugging stack overflows, priority inversion, interrupt latency, race conditions, missed notifications, and timing problems that are difficult to explain by looking only at application code. You can find the complete source code for this article on GitHub. I recommend checking the repository while reading the article, because it includes the full project structure, source files, configuration files, and any extra notes needed to build and test the example. Repository: https://github.com/god233012yamil/ESP32-IoT-Projects/tree/main/esp32s3_context_switch_demo