Distributed

PACELC

If Partition then Availability or Consistency; Else Latency or Consistency.

Why interviewers ask about it

The 'else' clause describes 99.99% of your operating time and shapes p99 far more than partitions ever will.

During a network partition a system must choose between consistency (linearizability) and availability.

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