Dave Mason shows the difference between a blocked process and a deadlocked process:
Sometimes our end users may not know the difference between a deadlock and blocking. In fact, there are some that may use these two interchangeably, thinking they are the same thing. A quick demonstration is often helpful to show the difference. Here’s a simple example that uses two global temp tables.
NOTE: I want to stress that this is merely a simple example, and not a deep dive or exhaustive article. Books have been written on concurrency, including one by Kalen Delaney (b|t). It’s free, and highly recommended.
Ultimately, blocked processes can complete (once the blocker finishes its work); a set of deadlocked processes can never complete, which is why (at least) one of the deadlocked processes needs to be rolled back. I like Dave’s “show me” approach here.