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Explain the CAP theorem and its relevance in distributed systems.

System Design/Architecturehard2.6 min readPremium
Frequency
Low
Asked at 1 company
Category
179
questions in System Design/Architecture
Difficulty Split
15E|6M|158H
in this category
Total Bank
1,863
across 7 categories
Asked at these companies
Goldman Sachs
Key Concepts Tested
joinoptimizationpartitionspark
Expert AnswerPremium
511 wordsIncludes code examplesInterview-ready
**Section 1 — The Context (The 'Why')** CAP theorem: of Consistency, Availability, Partition tolerance, only two can be guaranteed in distributed systems. The primary challenge is choosing the right trade-off for each component....
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