Deadlocks: Reading the Deadlock Graph, Common Patterns and Retrying in .NET
In a deadlock SQL Server picks the transaction that is cheapest to roll back as the victim and returns 1205; the fix is to read the graph, fix the access order, break reader-writer cycles with a covering index or RCSI, and retry the whole transaction while rechecking the business rule. Opposite-order, HOLDLOCK upsert and key lookup deadlocks, DEADLOCK_PRIORITY, EF Core's execution strategy, and a real case where a Polly retry overrode a cancellation.
8 Nov 2026
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14 min
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4
