CAP Theorem

DBMS 262 views Nov 14, 2025 1 min read

CAP Theorem

CAP theorem states that a distributed system can guarantee at most two of the following three properties simultaneously: Consistency, Availability, and Partition tolerance.

Definitions

  • Consistency: All nodes see the same data at the same time.
  • Availability: Every request receives a response (not necessarily the latest data).
  • Partition Tolerance: The system continues to operate despite arbitrary message loss between nodes.

Practical Implications

Systems choose trade-offs based on application needs. For example, some NoSQL systems favor availability and partition tolerance (AP), while traditional RDBMS favor consistency and availability (CA) within a single datacenter.

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