Foundations5 min · fundamental
Distributed Systems Fundamentals
Understand why teams distribute computation, what they gain, and which failure modes appear immediately.
Open visual refresher →Topic library
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33 topics
Consistency5 min · fundamental
CAP Theorem
Understand what a network partition really forces you to choose—and what CAP does not say.
Open visual refresher →Consistency5 min · intermediate
PACELC
Reason about consistency and latency both during partitions and during ordinary healthy operation.
Open visual refresher →Consistency7 min · intermediate
Consistency Models
Choose the weakest consistency promise that still protects the product’s invariants and user expectations.
Open visual refresher →Foundations6 min · intermediate
Time & Ordering
Reason about events when clocks disagree and messages arrive in different orders.
Open visual refresher →Replication6 min · fundamental
Replication
Copy state across machines without confusing more copies with stronger correctness.
Open visual refresher →Consensus6 min · intermediate
Quorums
Use overlapping read and write sets to reason about replica authority, freshness, and failure tolerance.
Open visual refresher →Consensus7 min · intermediate
Raft Consensus
Agree on one sequence of operations despite node crashes, delayed messages, and network partitions.
Open visual refresher →Consensus6 min · intermediate
Leader Election
Select one current coordinator and prevent stale leaders from continuing to act.
Open visual refresher →Partitioning6 min · intermediate
Consistent Hashing
Partition keys across changing nodes while minimizing how much data moves when the cluster scales.
Open visual refresher →Partitioning5 min · intermediate
Range Partitioning
Split ordered keyspace into contiguous ranges for efficient scans and controllable ownership.
Open visual refresher →Partitioning6 min · advanced
Rebalancing
Move ownership safely as data, traffic, and cluster membership change.
Open visual refresher →Partitioning5 min · intermediate
Hot Partitions
Detect and relieve keys or shards that receive disproportionate traffic.
Open visual refresher →Transactions7 min · advanced
Distributed Transactions & 2PC
Coordinate one atomic outcome across independent participants—and understand the blocking cost.
Open visual refresher →Transactions6 min · intermediate
Saga Transactions
Coordinate a long-running workflow with local commits and explicit compensation.
Open visual refresher →Transactions6 min · advanced
MVCC
Serve consistent snapshots by retaining multiple committed versions of data.
Open visual refresher →Transactions5 min · intermediate
Idempotent Workflows
Make retries and duplicate delivery converge on one durable business outcome.
Open visual refresher →Storage6 min · intermediate
LSM Trees
Understand how write-optimized storage turns random updates into sequential writes and pays later through compaction.
Open visual refresher →Storage7 min · intermediate
Distributed Databases
Combine partitioning, replication, transactions, and routing into one data service.
Open visual refresher →Storage5 min · intermediate
Compaction
Rewrite immutable storage files to reclaim space and control read amplification.
Open visual refresher →Storage7 min · advanced
Distributed SQL
Preserve relational queries and transactions while distributing storage and execution.
Open visual refresher →Messaging7 min · intermediate
Kafka & Distributed Logs
Use partitioned append-only logs for durable event streams, replay, and independent consumer progress.
Open visual refresher →Messaging6 min · intermediate
Delivery Semantics
Understand what at-most-once, at-least-once, and effectively-once processing really promise.
Open visual refresher →Messaging5 min · intermediate
Consumer Groups
Scale ordered log processing by assigning partitions across cooperating consumers.
Open visual refresher →Messaging5 min · intermediate
Backpressure
Slow producers or shed work before queues and consumers become unstable.
Open visual refresher →Reliability7 min · intermediate
Failure & Retry Patterns
Recover from transient failure without turning retries into a synchronized overload event.
Open visual refresher →Reliability5 min · fundamental
Partial Failures
Design for components and network paths failing independently while the rest of the system continues.
Open visual refresher →Reliability5 min · intermediate
Circuit Breakers
Stop repeated calls to an unhealthy dependency and probe recovery deliberately.
Open visual refresher →Reliability5 min · intermediate
Load Shedding
Reject lower-value work early so critical operations remain healthy during overload.
Open visual refresher →Architecture7 min · advanced
Active / Active Architecture
Serve traffic from multiple regions while making write ownership and conflicts explicit.
Open visual refresher →Architecture7 min · advanced
Geo Replication
Copy data across regions while balancing latency, durability, locality, and consistency.
Open visual refresher →Architecture5 min · fundamental
RPO & RTO
Turn disaster recovery into explicit data-loss and restoration objectives.
Open visual refresher →Architecture7 min · advanced
Conflict Resolution
Merge concurrent updates using semantics that preserve the product's invariants.
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