LESSON 2.3
Consistency models and CAP
Learn key techniques and workflows in System Design Foundations.
6m
intermediate
10,947 students
Overview
When the network partitions you choose consistency or availability. Most real systems pick a different answer per operation.
In this lesson you will:
- Place a system on the consistency spectrum
- Choose guarantees per operation, not per database
- Explain the user-visible effect of eventual consistency
Pro Tip
Ask what the user sees when a read is stale. That answer picks your consistency model faster than any theorem.