How do different levels of isolation affect performance?

How do different levels of isolation affect performance?

Different levels of isolation can significantly impact performance, especially in systems like databases. Higher isolation levels can reduce concurrency and increase wait times, while lower levels may lead to issues like dirty reads.

Can you explain what dirty reads are?

Dirty reads occur when a transaction reads data that has been modified by another transaction but not yet committed. This can lead to inconsistencies if the first transaction is rolled back.

What are the trade-offs between high and low isolation levels?

High isolation levels provide data consistency but can reduce throughput and increase latency. Low isolation levels improve performance but risk data integrity.

Which isolation level is generally recommended for online transaction processing?

For online transaction processing, the 'Read Committed' isolation level is often recommended as it balances performance and data integrity.