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Can anyone explain this to me, how is it a race condition?

Two concurrent calls to that code. Both of them get the same balance (100), pass the test and deduct the amount (75), getting to a -50 balance.

I correct myself. It leads to a 25 balance but possibly a double spend of those 50 dollars in two transactions.

The standard pattern is to use database row locking or calling a stored procedure that performs locking inside. Backend developers typically don't like the second solution but it provides a kind of API. Not to be overlooked if there are multiple services accessing it, especially in a polyglot environment.

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