Section checkpoint

Distributed Systems

6 questions drawn from the 2 chapters in this section. If most land on the first try, you are ready for the next section. If not, the explanation after each answer says which idea to revisit.

Checkpoint

6 questions · first-try answers earn the most XP

1. A "like" counter is eventually consistent across regions. Why is that acceptable for this feature but not for a bank balance?

2. Your team claims the service is "strongly consistent, so it is also highly available". What is wrong with that claim?

3. A team wants "the best of both": strong consistency and full availability during a partition. What should you tell them?

4. What is the key design difference that made Raft more widely adopted than Paxos?

5. Why must any two quorums overlap by at least one node in a consensus system?

6. As an engineer depending on etcd or CockroachDB, why does a brief leader election cause a write window?

What this checkpoint covers

Put it to work in a drill

Next section: Key Technologies