40 Algorithms Every Programmer Should Know

Presenting the CAP theorem

In 1998, Eric Brewer proposed a theorem that later became famous as the CAP theorem. It highlights the various trade-offs involved in designing a distributed storage system.

To understand the CAP theorem, first, let's define the following three characteristics of distributed storage systems: consistency, availability, and partition tolerance. CAP is, in fact, an acronym made up of these three characteristics:

• Consistency (or simply C): The distributed storage consists of various nodes. Any of these nodes can be used to read, write, or update records in the data repository. Consistency guarantees that at a certain time, t₁, independent of which node we use to read the data, we will get the same result. Every read ...