A process changes its state during its execution which is called as the process life cycle. A process life cycle consists of five stages which are:

1. New


2. Ready


3. Running


4. Waiting


5. Terminated

The five states are standard states for a process in which a process remain in their life cycle.

It contains sufficient information such that if an interrupt occurs, the process can begin from the point where it left later as if nothing had happened.