Cap Theorem medium
In a system like Dynamo, what is a 'Sloppy Quorum' (Hinted Handoff)?
- A A specialized consensus quorum that relies on a single random node to make all system-wide decisions.
- B A simplified communication protocol that allows high-priority clients to bypass the standard consensus loop.
- C Accepting writes on alternative healthy nodes when designated replicas are unreachable, prioritization Availability.
- D An internal metadata calculation that rounds down the required node count to the nearest whole integer.
Answer: C. Accepting writes on alternative healthy nodes when designated replicas are unreachable, prioritization Availability.
In a 'Strict Quorum', if the specific nodes assigned to a data shard are offline, the write must fail (CP behavior). A 'Sloppy Quorum' (used in DynamoDB-style systems) allows any available node to temporarily accept the write. This is paired with 'Hinted Handoff', where the temporary node later delivers the data to the correct replica once it returns. This maximizes Availability (AP) at the cost of transient inconsistency.
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