CAP theorem
During a network partition, atomic consistency and availability cannot both be guaranteed.
Use this when You must decide what isolated replicas do when they cannot communicate.
without the term
“The two sides of our database cannot communicate. Explain which requests can still succeed and what they can promise.”
with the term · How do you ask a model for CAP theorem?
Apply CAP to this partition scenario. State which operations stop and which consistency guarantees remain.
What is CAP theorem?
CAP concerns atomic consistency, usually described as linearizability, and availability of every request to a non-failing node in a partitionable asynchronous system. It describes a failure-time constraint, rather than a menu of three independent features.
Why does CAP theorem matter when vibe coding?
An agent can label a database AP or CP without specifying the operation or partition behavior.
How do you do CAP theorem?
Describe one partitioned read/write scenario. Choose whether to reject or delay an operation or allow potentially divergent results. Test that policy.
What goes wrong with CAP theorem?
CAP availability differs from a monthly uptime percentage. ACID consistency means something else again.
Sources for this entry
- Gilbert and Lynch: Brewer’s conjecture
Impossibility of providing atomic consistency and availability under partitions in the asynchronous model.
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