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Understanding CAP Theorem — System Design 4

In any distributed data system, you can only guarantee two out of consistency, availability and partition tolerance simultaneously... This is wrong…..

Sivaram Rasathurai
Javarevisited
4 min readDec 28, 2024

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Ever heard of the CAP Theorem but found it too complicated? Let’s simplify it together! By the end of this article, you’ll have a clear understanding of what it means and how it’s used in real-world systems.

What Is CAP Theorem?

The CAP Theorem explains a big challenge in distributed systems (systems with multiple computers working together). It says you can only pick two out of these three properties:

  1. Consistency ( C ): All users see the same, up-to-date data or get an error.
  2. Availability (A): Every request gets a response (it might not be the latest data, but it won’t fail).
  3. Partition Tolerance (P): The system keeps running, even if parts of it can’t communicate with each other.

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