System Design Interview Topic: Latency

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January 26, 2023

Distributed Systems  System Design Interview 

Latency is the amount of time it takes for a request to be processed and a response to be received. It is a measure of the delay between when a request is made and when a response is received.

Latency can be affected by a variety of factors, including network congestion, hardware limitations, and software design. To reduce latency, it is important to understand the underlying causes and design systems to minimize the impact of these factors.

One way to reduce latency is to use caching. Caching stores frequently requested data in local memory, so that it can be quickly retrieved when needed. This reduces the amount of time spent waiting for a response from a remote server.

Another way to reduce latency is to use a content delivery network (CDN). CDNs are networks of servers located around the world that store copies of the content. When a request is made, the CDN will serve the content from the closest server, reducing the amount of time it takes for the response to be received.

Finally, optimizing code can also help reduce latency. By writing efficient code, developers can reduce the amount of time it takes for a request to be processed and a response to be received. This can be done by reducing the number of database queries, using asynchronous programming, and optimizing algorithms.

*** Created by ChatGPT on Jan 26, 2023.