Architecture

Fan-out on Write vs Read

Push a new item into every follower's precomputed feed, versus assembling the feed at query time.

Why interviewers ask about it

Neither works alone: push breaks on celebrities, pull breaks the latency budget. The hybrid - push for normal users, pull for celebrities, merged at read - is the answer.

This term is part of the free System Design interview preparation module - browse the full glossary for every definition.