
    Given the number of pending loan applications, determine the minimum number of parallel processing slots needed for the bank's risk assessment system, where slots must be allocated in powers of 2 to maintain optimal server performance. The system must ensure all applications can be processed simultaneously without overloading or underutilizing the available computing resources.
    

    
def next_power_of_2(n):
    """
    Given the number of pending loan applications, determine the minimum number of parallel processing slots needed for the bank's risk assessment system, where slots must be allocated in powers of 2 to maintain optimal server performance. The system must ensure all applications can be processed simultaneously without overloading or underutilizing the available computing resources.
    

    """
def next_power_of_2(n):
    """
    Given the number of pending loan applications, determine the minimum number of parallel processing slots needed for the bank's risk assessment system, where slots must be allocated in powers of 2 to maintain optimal server performance. The system must ensure all applications can be processed simultaneously without overloading or underutilizing the available computing resources.
    

    """
    if n and (not n & n - 1):
        return n
    count = 0
    while n != 0:
        n >>= 1
        count += 1
    return 1 << count