CAP theorem - Availability and Partition Tolerance

Question

While I try to understand the \"Availability\" (A) and \"Partition tolerance\" (P) in CAP, I found it difficult to understand the explanations from various articles.

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Answer 1

Simple way to understand CAP theorem:

In case of network partition, one needs to choose between perfect availability and perfect consistency.

Picking consistency means not being able to answer a client's query as the system cannot guarantee to return the most recent write. This sacrifices availability.

Picking availability means being able to respond to a client's request but the system cannot guarantee consistency, i.e., the most recent value written. Available systems provide the best possible answer under the given circumstance.

This explanation is from this excellent article. Hope it will help.