Software Engineering & CS Glossary
Concise, production-tested definitions, mental models, and architectural nuances for distributed systems, databases, operating systems, and computer networks.
ACID Properties
A set of four properties (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) that guarantee database transactions are processed reliably.
Anycast Routing
A network addressing method where a single IP address is advertised by multiple globally distributed routing points.
B-Tree & B+ Tree
Self-balancing search trees optimized for storage systems that read and write large blocks of data.
CAP Theorem
States that any distributed data store can only simultaneously guarantee at most two of: Consistency, Availability, and Partition Tolerance.
Consistent Hashing
A hashing strategy that minimizes the keys that must be remapped when the hash table or server ring is resized.
Deadlock
A situation where two or more processes are unable to proceed because each is waiting for the other to release a resource.
DuckDB-WASM
An in-process columnar SQL OLAP database compiled to WebAssembly running directly inside modern web browsers.
Eventual Consistency
A consistency model used in distributed computing where all replicas will eventually return the last updated value if no new updates are made.
Garbage Collection (GC)
Automatic memory management where the runtime identifies and frees memory that is no longer accessible by the application.
Idempotency
An operation that can be applied multiple times without changing the result beyond the initial application.
JSON Web Token (JWT)
A compact, URL-safe means of representing claims to be transferred between two parties, cryptographically signed using a secret or public/private key.
Kubernetes (K8s)
An open-source container orchestration system for automating application deployment, scaling, and management.
P99 Latency (Tail Latency)
The latency threshold below which 99% of all requests are served, highlighting worst-case tail performance.
Rate Limiting & Token Bucket
A strategy for limiting network traffic by capping how often someone can repeat an action within a timeframe.
Database Sharding
Horizontal partitioning of a database that separates large databases into smaller, faster, more easily managed parts called shards.
TCP 3-Way Handshake
The method used by TCP to set up a reliable, stateful connection between a client and server before data transfer.
Virtual DOM
A lightweight JavaScript abstraction of the actual DOM kept in memory and synced with the real DOM through reconciliation.
WebSocket Protocol
A computer communications protocol providing full-duplex communication channels over a single TCP connection.
