The techniques described herein may provide deadlock detection and prevention with improved performance and reduced overhead over existing systems. For example, in an embodiment, a method for improving performance of software code by preventing deadlocks may comprise executing software code in a computer system comprising a processor, memory accessible by the processor, and program instructions and data for the software code stored in the memory, the program instructions executable by the processor to execute the software code, logging information relating to occurrence of deadlock conditions among threads in the executing software code, detecting occurrence of deadlock conditions in the software code based on the logged information, and modifying the software code or data used by the software code so as to prevent occurrence of at least one detected deadlock condition.