Latency
Latency is the time delay between a stimulus and the response to it, often measured as the round-trip time for data to travel from source to destination and back. In computing and networking, it typically refers to the delay in data transmission over a network or within a system, such as the time taken for a packet to travel from a client to a server. High latency can degrade performance in real-time applications like online gaming, video conferencing, and financial trading.
Developers should understand latency to optimize application performance, especially for real-time or interactive systems where delays impact user experience. It is crucial in fields like web development, cloud computing, and IoT to minimize response times and ensure efficient data flow. Monitoring and reducing latency helps in designing scalable architectures and meeting service-level agreements (SLAs).