Two-Phase Commit
Two-Phase Commit (2PC) is a distributed transaction protocol used to ensure atomicity and consistency across multiple databases or services in a distributed system. It coordinates participants through a prepare phase, where they vote on committing a transaction, and a commit phase, where the coordinator finalizes the decision based on the votes. This protocol helps maintain data integrity by ensuring all participants either commit or abort a transaction together, preventing partial updates.
Developers should learn Two-Phase Commit when building distributed systems that require strong consistency, such as financial applications, e-commerce platforms, or microservices architectures where transactions span multiple databases. It is particularly useful in scenarios where data must remain synchronized across different nodes to avoid inconsistencies, though it can introduce latency and complexity due to its blocking nature and reliance on a coordinator.