Revision Notes/System Design Concepts
Field Entry - System Design Concepts
ACID vs BASE
ACID guarantees strong consistency for traditional databases; BASE allows relaxed consistency for highly available distributed systems.
Field Note - Real-world Analogy
“ACID is like a bank wire transfer — every detail is strictly correct, verified, and locked. If anything goes wrong, it completely rolls back. BASE is like updating your Instagram follower count — it doesn't matter if your count shows 1,000 for a half-second before it shows 1,001. Eventually it will be correct, and strict real-time accuracy isn't worth the performance cost.”
Field Observations - Key Topics Covered
ACID stands for Atomicity (all steps of a transaction succeed or all fail — no partial updates), Consistency (the database moves from one valid state to another — no rule violations), Isolation (concurrent transactions don't interfere — each sees a consistent snapshot), and Durability (committed data is persisted even after crashes).
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