Fundamental Tradeoffs
Back: System Design Tradeoffs
Core tension points that arise in every system design. These tradeoffs are inescapable — optimizing for one side necessarily costs something on the other. Understanding them prevents surprise and enables intentional decision-making.
Concepts
- Consistency vs Availability
- Latency vs Throughput
- Simplicity vs Flexibility
- Read vs Write Optimization
- Cost vs Performance
- Coupling vs Autonomy