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What is CAP Theorem?

Understanding consistency, availability and partition tolerance in distributed systems.

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What is CAP Theorem?

CAP theorem is one of the fundamental concepts in distributed systems.

The three properties

CAP stands for:

  • Consistency
  • Availability
  • Partition Tolerance

Consistency

Every read receives the most recent write.

Availability

Every request receives a response.

Partition Tolerance

The system continues operating despite network communication failures between nodes.

Conclusion

Understanding CAP theorem helps us reason about distributed system architecture.