Distributed Systems & Scalability

Classify and analyze trade-offs between linearizability, sequential, causal, and eventual consistency.

Explain how Lamport timestamps and vector clocks are used to establish causal ordering of events.

Compare single-leader, multi-leader, and leaderless replication architectures and their use cases.

Analyze the impact of quorum configurations (W + R > N) on consistency and availability.

Compare conflict resolution strategies, such as Last-Write-Wins and version vectors, in multi-leader and leaderless systems.

Explain the Raft consensus algorithm's mechanisms for leader election, log replication, and safety, and contrast its approach with Paxos.

Apply leader election patterns using a consensus-based coordination service like ZooKeeper or etcd.

Compare distributed locking approaches (e.g., database locks, Redis Redlock, ZooKeeper) and analyze their respective failure modes.

Articulate the PACELC theorem and use it to reason about system design trade-offs beyond the CAP theorem.