Last Writer Wins
Last Writer Wins (LWW) is a conflict resolution strategy used in distributed systems, particularly in eventual consistency models, where multiple replicas of data can be updated concurrently. It resolves conflicts by prioritizing the most recent write based on timestamps or version numbers, discarding older writes. This approach is simple and efficient but can lead to data loss if not managed carefully, as it ignores the semantic context of updates.
Developers should learn and use Last Writer Wins when building distributed applications, such as collaborative editing tools, real-time databases, or peer-to-peer networks, where low latency and simplicity in conflict resolution are prioritized over data integrity. It is especially useful in scenarios where writes are frequent and conflicts are rare, or when eventual consistency is acceptable, such as in social media feeds or caching systems.