What is causal consistency?

Can you explain what causal consistency means?

Causal consistency is a model in distributed systems where operations are seen in a way that respects the cause-and-effect relationship.

How does it differ from eventual consistency?

Unlike eventual consistency, which guarantees that all nodes will eventually see the same data, causal consistency ensures that if one operation causally affects another, the affected operation will be seen after the cause.

Can you give an example of where causal consistency is important?

Sure! In collaborative applications like Google Docs, if one user edits a document, others should see that change before seeing subsequent edits that depend on it.

What are the challenges in implementing causal consistency?

Challenges include maintaining the causal relationships across distributed nodes and ensuring low latency while doing so.