Paxos
Paxos is a family of consensus algorithms used in distributed computing to achieve agreement on a single value among a group of nodes, even in the presence of failures. It ensures fault tolerance and consistency in distributed systems by allowing nodes to propose, accept, and learn values through a multi-phase protocol. The algorithm is foundational for building reliable distributed databases, coordination services, and replicated state machines.
Developers should learn Paxos when designing or working with distributed systems that require strong consistency and fault tolerance, such as distributed databases (e.g., Google Spanner), coordination services (e.g., Apache ZooKeeper), or consensus-based systems. It is essential for scenarios where multiple nodes must agree on data updates or leader election to prevent split-brain problems and ensure system reliability under network partitions or node failures.