Ron challenged me to write my own implementation of reader/writers lock. He did a great job of doing his own implementation.

I came up with this:
(note: this is really naive implementation, it’s far from ideal in terms of fairness and possible racing conditions. Just take it as brain-teaser)

   1: public class StateReaderWriterLock : IDisposable

   2:     {

   3:         private readonly AutoResetEvent _changeStateAutoLock = new AutoResetEvent(false);

   4:         private readonly AutoResetEvent _writerDone = new AutoResetEvent(false);

   5:         private readonly object _readersLock = new object();

   6:         private readonly object _writersLock = new object();

   7:         private int _readers;

   8:         private int _state; // 0 is "neutral", 1 is read, 2 is write

   9:         private int _writers; 

  10:  

  11:         public void LockReader()

  12:         {

  13:             while (true)

  14:             {

  15:                 // try to bring the state from "neutral" or "read" to "read". If the current state is "write", let's wait.

  16:                 while (Interlocked.CompareExchange(ref _state, 1, 0) == 2)

  17:                     _changeStateAutoLock.WaitOne(); 

  18:  

  19:                 // an interesting case here where the last reader is now in ReleaseRead and we're trying to read as well, we might be too late (the writer might have changed the _state already)

  20:                 // if that happens - we're back to square one, but we still want to avoid recursive locking!

  21:                 bool loseInRace = false;

  22:                 lock (_readersLock)

  23:                 {

  24:                     if (Interlocked.CompareExchange(ref _state, 1, 0) == 2)

  25:                         loseInRace = true;

  26:                     else

  27:                         _readers++;

  28:                 }

  29:                 if (!loseInRace)

  30:                     return; // success!

  31:             }

  32:         } 

  33:  

  34:         public void ReleaseReader()

  35:         {

  36:             lock (_readersLock)

  37:             {

  38:                 _readers--; 

  39:  

  40:                 // if I am the last reader, let's reset the state so any given reader/writer can take it

  41:                 if (_readers == 0)

  42:                 {

  43:                     Thread.VolatileWrite(ref _state, 0);

  44:                     _changeStateAutoLock.Set();

  45:                 }

  46:             }

  47:         } 

  48:  

  49:         public void LockWriter()

  50:         {

  51:             while (true)

  52:             {

  53:                 // try to bring the state from "neutral" or "write" to "write". If the current state is "read", let's wait.

  54:                 while (Interlocked.CompareExchange(ref _state, 2, 0) == 1)

  55:                     _changeStateAutoLock.WaitOne(); 

  56:  

  57:                 bool loseInRace = false;

  58:                 lock (_writersLock)

  59:                 {

  60:                     if (Interlocked.CompareExchange(ref _state, 2, 0) == 1)

  61:                         loseInRace = true;

  62:                     else

  63:                         _writers++;

  64:                 } 

  65:  

  66:                 if (!loseInRace)

  67:                     break; // great success!

  68:             } 

  69:  

  70:             // allow 1 writer only

  71:             if (Thread.VolatileRead(ref _writers) > 1)

  72:             {

  73:                 _writerDone.WaitOne();

  74:             }

  75:         } 

  76:  

  77:         public void ReleaseWriter()

  78:         {

  79:             lock (_writersLock)

  80:             {

  81:                 _writers--; 

  82:  

  83:                 // if I am the last writer, let's reset the state so any given reader/writer can take it

  84:                 if (_writers == 0)

  85:                 {

  86:                     Thread.VolatileWrite(ref _state, 0);

  87:                     _changeStateAutoLock.Set();

  88:                 }

  89:                 else

  90:                 {

  91:                     _writerDone.Set();

  92:                 }

  93:             }

  94:         } 

  95:  

  96:         public void Dispose()

  97:         {

  98:             _changeStateAutoLock.Close();

  99:             _writerDone.Close();

 100:         }

 101:     }

 102:  

Not sure it’s the greatest job interview question, but it is indeed challenging and fun to play with.