150 performance engineering keywords

1. Average Response Time

o The arithmetic mean of all individual response times measured
for requests processed by a system, typically computed in
milliseconds.
o It serves as a primary metric for gauging overall system
performance under typical load conditions, helping to identify
trends in latency over time.
2. 90th Percentile
o A statistical measure that indicates the response time below
which 90% of all requests fall, discounting the worst 10% to
highlight general performance.
o It is used to assess user experience by emphasizing the
performance experienced by most end-users while de-
emphasizing extreme outliers.
3. Throughput
o The total number of transactions, operations, or requests
processed by a system per unit time (often expressed in requests
per second or transactions per minute).
o It reflects the system’s capacity and efficiency, directly
correlating with how well hardware and software resources are
utilized under load.
4. Hits/sec
o The number of discrete HTTP hits or network requests the server
handles every second, typically used in web performance
metrics.
o It provides insight into the load and traffic intensity on web
servers and is crucial for capacity planning and scaling strategies.
5. Latency
o The delay between a request being initiated and the first byte of
the response being received, often measured in milliseconds.
o It is a critical parameter for evaluating the performance impact of
network propagation, processing overhead, or bottlenecks within
the application stack.

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 6. Concurrent Users
o The count of users actively interacting with the system at the
same time, making simultaneous requests during a given time
window.
o This metric is vital for capacity planning and load testing,
indicating how the system scales under high-traffic, multi-user
scenarios.
7. Simultaneous Users
o A refined metric representing the number of users performing
actions at exactly the same moment, providing a snapshot of
peak concurrency.
o Essential for understanding instantaneous load peaks that might
stress the system's synchronous processing capabilities.
8. Peak Load
o The maximum load (in terms of traffic, transactions, or resource
usage) that a system experiences during a specific period.
o Analyzing peak load helps in capacity planning and stress testing,
ensuring that the system can handle extreme conditions without
degradation.
9. Baseline
o A reference set of performance metrics collected under normal
operating conditions, used for future comparisons.
o Establishing a baseline is critical in performance monitoring and
regression testing, allowing teams to detect deviations
introduced by new changes.
10. Benchmark
o Standardized tests or sets of conditions used to measure and
compare system performance against industry standards or
previous releases.
o They provide objective data points that help validate system
improvements and identify performance regressions over time.
11. Stateful
o Describes systems or applications that retain client or session
state across multiple interactions, often using memory,
databases, or distributed caches.

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 o Stateful design increases complexity in load balancing and
scalability due to the need for session persistence and state
synchronization.
12. Stateless
o Architectures where each request is independent and contains all
information needed to complete the processing, with no stored
context between requests.
o This design simplifies horizontal scaling and load distribution, as
any server can handle any request without coordination
overhead.
13. Session
o A temporary, server-managed interaction period with unique
identifiers (often via cookies or tokens), preserving client state
across multiple requests.
o Sessions manage authentication, user preferences, and
transactional continuity, often backed by in-memory stores or
databases.
14. Cookie
o Small data files stored on the client-side by web browsers to
maintain state, track user behavior, or store session identifiers.
o Technically, cookies are transmitted via HTTP headers and
require careful security (e.g., HttpOnly, Secure flags) to prevent
exploits.
15. Deployment
o The process of transferring code, configurations, and associated
resources from a development environment into production.
o It involves version control, CI/CD pipelines, and environment
orchestration to ensure seamless rollouts with minimal
downtime.
16. Migration
o The movement or transformation of data, applications, or
services from one platform, architecture, or environment to
another.
o Migration often involves compatibility testing, data integrity
verification, and robust rollback strategies to maintain system
continuity.

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 17. Replication
o The process of duplicating data or systems across multiple nodes
or geographic regions to enhance availability and fault tolerance.
o In databases, replication strategies (master-slave, multi-master)
require careful conflict resolution and consistency management.
18. Upgrades
o The process of replacing or improving system components—
hardware, software libraries, or entire platforms—to benefit from
enhanced features and performance.
o Upgrades require comprehensive testing, compatibility checks,
and often, staged rollouts to avoid service disruption.
19. Swapping
o The operation of moving inactive memory pages from RAM to
disk-based swap space, allowing systems to free physical
memory.
o While swapping prevents out-of-memory errors, excessive
swapping can severely impact performance due to slower disk I/O
speeds compared to RAM.
20. Paging
o A memory management technique that divides the system’s
virtual memory into fixed-size blocks (pages) which are mapped
to physical memory frames.
o Paging enables efficient use of memory but can lead to
performance overhead due to page faults if memory is
overcommitted.
21. Context Switches
o The process by which an operating system suspends one process
or thread and resumes another, thereby sharing CPU time among
multiple tasks.
o High rates of context switching may indicate contention or
inefficient scheduling, impacting overall system responsiveness.
22. Cache
o A fast, intermediary storage layer that holds a subset of data (or
instructions) to improve read performance and reduce latency.
o Used at various levels (CPU cache, application-level cache,
distributed cache) to minimize expensive data retrieval
operations from slower storage.

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 23. JVM Stack
o A memory area allocated for each thread in a Java Virtual Machine
(JVM) to store method call frames, local variables, and partial
results.
o The stack is managed via LIFO (Last In, First Out) order and is
critical for execution context isolation during method calls.
24. JVM Heap
o The runtime memory pool from which Java objects are allocated,
subject to garbage collection.
o Heap management—including sizing and garbage collector
configuration—is key to maintaining optimal performance and
avoiding memory leaks.
25. Pods
o The smallest deployable units in Kubernetes, encapsulating one
or more containers with shared storage and network
namespaces.
o Pods serve as the basic building blocks for deploying and scaling
containerized applications within a cluster.
26. Containers
o Isolated, lightweight execution environments that package
application code and its dependencies together, enabling
consistency across deployments.
o They use kernel-level virtualization (often via Docker) and are
orchestrated using container management systems like
Kubernetes.
27. Observability
o The measure of how well a system’s internal state can be inferred
from its external outputs (logs, metrics, events, traces).
o High observability facilitates debugging, performance tuning, and
real-time monitoring in complex distributed systems.
28. Monitoring
o The systematic collection, processing, and analysis of
performance and operational data from a system.
o Employs tools for real-time alerting, dashboards, and anomaly
detection to continuously gauge system health.

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 29. Profiling
o The process of instrumenting an application to collect detailed
metrics about resource consumption (CPU, memory, I/O) during
runtime.
o Profiling is used to uncover performance bottlenecks and
optimize code execution through detailed metrics analysis.
30. Scaling
o The adjustment of computing resources—either by adding more
instances (horizontal scaling) or enhancing individual node
capabilities (vertical scaling).
o Effective scaling strategies ensure that a system can handle
growth in demand while maintaining performance SLAs.
31. Extrapolating
o Predicting future system behavior based on current and historical
performance data using statistical or machine learning models.
o This supports proactive capacity planning and helps forecast
potential performance issues before they impact production.
32. Visualization
o The graphical representation of performance data using charts,
graphs, and dashboards to aid in analysis and decision-making.
o Visualization tools provide an intuitive way to monitor trends,
detect anomalies, and communicate complex performance data
clearly.
33. Distributed Systems
o Systems composed of multiple independent computers that work
together to achieve a common goal, communicating via a
network.
o They require mechanisms for synchronization, fault tolerance,
and data consistency to ensure reliable operation across nodes.
34. Microservices
o An architectural style where a large application is divided into
smaller, loosely coupled services, each handling a specific
function.
o Microservices allow for independent deployment, scaling, and
technology heterogeneity but also introduce challenges in
distributed communication and data consistency.

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 35. Monolithic
o A unified software application that is built, deployed, and scaled
as a single codebase, with tightly integrated components.
o While easier to develop initially, monoliths can become difficult
to maintain and scale as the application grows.
36. Pacing
o The deliberate introduction of delays between consecutive test
iterations or operations to simulate realistic user behavior.
o In performance testing, pacing helps control the request rate,
preventing artificial load spikes that don’t reflect real-world
usage.
37. Think Time
o The simulated delay that represents the time a real user would
spend interacting with an application between actions.
o Incorporating think time in tests ensures more realistic workload
simulations and more accurate measurement of system
responsiveness.
38. Load Balancers
o Network devices or software applications that distribute incoming
requests across multiple servers to achieve optimal resource
utilization.
o Load balancers enhance fault tolerance, improve response times,
and support scalability by preventing any single node from
becoming a bottleneck.
39. Fault Tolerance
o The ability of a system to continue operating in the event of
component failures, using redundancy and error-handling
mechanisms.
o Achieved through techniques such as replication, graceful
degradation, and failover to ensure uninterrupted service
availability.
40. High Availability
o A system design paradigm focused on ensuring continuous
operational performance, typically targeting minimal downtime.
o Implemented via redundant components, clustering, and
geographically distributed architectures to withstand failures.

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 41. Failover
o The automatic switching to a standby system or redundant
component when the primary one fails.
o Designed to minimize service interruptions, failover mechanisms
require state synchronization and constant health monitoring.
42. Horizontal Scaling
o Increasing system capacity by adding more machines or nodes to
a system or cluster.
o This method enables distributed load and fault isolation,
facilitating elastic scaling in cloud and data center environments.
43. Vertical Scaling
o Enhancing a system’s performance by upgrading existing
hardware resources such as CPU, RAM, or storage.
o While simpler to implement, vertical scaling is limited by
hardware constraints and may lead to single points of failure.
44. Load Testing
o A performance testing practice where a system is subjected to a
predetermined load to evaluate its behavior under normal and
peak conditions.
o It identifies resource utilization thresholds and performance
bottlenecks, enabling informed capacity planning.
45. Stress Testing
o A type of performance evaluation where the system is pushed
beyond its normal operational capacity to determine its breaking
point.
o It helps identify failure modes, recovery capabilities, and the
resilience of the system under extreme conditions.
46. Soak Testing
o Also known as endurance testing, it subjects a system to a high
load over an extended period to detect memory leaks, resource
exhaustion, or degradation.
o This helps ensure long-term stability and performance
consistency over prolonged operational periods.
47. Smoke Testing
o A preliminary testing process that verifies whether the basic
functionalities of an application are working after a new build or
deployment.

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 o Often automated, it serves as a quick check before more detailed
performance or regression tests are executed.
48. Endurance Testing
o Evaluates how a system performs under a continuous load for a
prolonged period, focusing on potential degradation.
o It uncovers issues like resource leaks, slow memory buildup, or
gradual decreases in throughput that might not be evident in
shorter tests.
49. Resilience Testing
o The practice of deliberately testing system recovery mechanisms
by introducing failures to assess its ability to recover and
maintain critical operations.
o This process validates redundancy, automated recovery
strategies, and the robustness of error-handling mechanisms.
50. Regression Testing
o Re-running previously conducted tests after changes or updates
to ensure that new code has not adversely affected existing
functionality.
o It is crucial for maintaining performance standards, especially
after refactoring or integration of new features.
51. API Gateway
o A centralized management layer that handles all client
interactions with backend microservices, offering routing,
authentication, and aggregation.
o It abstracts complexity from clients while managing cross-cutting
concerns such as rate limiting and logging.
52. Middleware
o Software that functions as an intermediary between different
systems or applications, providing services such as messaging,
authentication, and data transformation.
o It simplifies integration and communication between disparate
systems and abstracts network complexities.
53. Orchestration
o The automated coordination and management of complex
service interactions and deployments, often using container
orchestrators like Kubernetes.

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 o It ensures that distributed components are correctly configured,
scaled, and maintained, reducing manual intervention and error
rates.
54. Automation
o The use of scripts, tools, and pipelines to perform tasks such as
deployments, monitoring, and testing without manual input.
o Automation enhances consistency, speeds up processes, and
reduces the likelihood of human error in repetitive tasks.
55. CI/CD
o Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment pipelines
that automate the testing and deployment of code changes in a
streamlined manner.
o They facilitate rapid iteration, quick rollback, and consistent
quality assurance through automated builds, tests, and releases.
56. Canary Deployment
o A strategy wherein a new release is initially rolled out to a small
subset of users to monitor its performance and stability before
full-scale deployment.
o It minimizes risk and allows early detection of issues by
comparing the new release’s metrics against the baseline.
57. Blue-Green Deployment
o A release management strategy that maintains two identical
environments (blue and green), enabling a smooth transition by
switching traffic from the old to the new environment seamlessly.
o This approach minimizes downtime and simplifies rollback if the
new environment fails to meet performance criteria.
58. Tracing
o The detailed recording of the path and execution flow of a request
as it traverses microservices and system components.
o Distributed tracing allows engineers to pinpoint latency hotspots
and pinpoint failures across complex call graphs.
59. Metrics
o Quantitative measurements collected from various system
components (e.g., CPU load, memory usage, I/O throughput) that
indicate system performance.

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 o These metrics are often aggregated, processed, and visualized to
monitor system health, troubleshoot issues, and support
capacity planning.
60. Logs
o Time-stamped records of system events, transactions, or errors
generated by software applications and infrastructure
components.
o They serve as a primary source for debugging, forensic analysis,
and tracking operational behavior in production environments.
61. Distributed Tracing
o An advanced form of tracing that correlates logs and traces
across multiple services in a distributed architecture.
o It enables end-to-end monitoring of request flows, facilitating
rapid isolation of performance issues or failures across
interconnected components.
62. Chaos Engineering
o The disciplined practice of deliberately injecting failures (e.g.,
network blackouts, service crashes) into a system to evaluate its
resilience and robustness.
o By simulating real-world failure scenarios, chaos engineering
validates recovery strategies and reinforces system stability
under unexpected conditions.
63. Elasticity
o The property of a system that allows it to automatically adjust its
resource allocation (scaling up or down) in response to real-time
demand.
o Elasticity is central to cloud-native architectures, ensuring cost-
effectiveness while maintaining performance consistency during
load fluctuations.
64. Fault Injection
o A testing technique that purposefully introduces errors or failures
into a system to verify its error-handling and recovery capabilities.
o It is used to simulate uncommon failure modes and to validate
that the system can gracefully handle and recover from
unexpected disruptions.

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 65. Immutable Infrastructure
o An approach in which servers or infrastructure components are
never modified after deployment; any change is achieved by
replacing the entire component.
o This strategy minimizes configuration drift, simplifies rollback
procedures, and ensures consistency across deployments.
66. Service Discovery
o The automated process by which applications locate and
communicate with service instances in dynamic, distributed
environments.
o It eliminates hard-coded endpoints and adapts to runtime
changes through mechanisms like DNS-based resolution or
dedicated service registries.
67. Sharding
o The practice of horizontally partitioning data across multiple
databases or nodes to distribute load and improve performance.
o Each shard holds a subset of the overall data, which can lead to
reduced latency and enhanced throughput for large-scale
systems.
68. Rate Limiting
o The enforcement of a maximum threshold on the number of
operations (e.g., API calls) allowed over a fixed interval.
o Rate limiting prevents overuse, protects backend resources, and
maintains service quality during high-traffic scenarios.
69. Circuit Breaker
o A fault-tolerance pattern that halts operations for a defined
period when a particular service repeatedly fails, preventing
system-wide cascading failures.
o It monitors error rates and automatically “trips” to stop further
calls, then gradually allows trial requests to check service
recovery.
70. Containerization
o The process of bundling an application and its dependencies into
a standardized unit called a container, ensuring consistency
across environments.

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 o Containers share the host OS kernel while remaining isolated
from one another, optimizing resource usage and simplifying
deployment workflows.
71. Service Mesh
o An infrastructure layer that manages service-to-service
communication in microservices architectures, providing
features like traffic management, security, and observability.
o It abstracts network complexities away from application code,
enabling consistent policy enforcement and enhanced inter-
service communication.
72. Ingress Controller
o A Kubernetes component responsible for managing external
access to services within a cluster, often handling HTTP/S traffic
routing.
o It performs tasks like SSL termination, load balancing, and URL-
based routing based on Ingress configuration rules.
73. Observability Pillars
o The three fundamental data sources—logs, metrics, and traces—
that collectively provide full insight into system behavior.
o Each pillar contributes uniquely to diagnosing issues, where logs
capture detailed events, metrics offer quantitative snapshots,
and traces show request flows.
74. Garbage Collection (GC)
o An automated memory management process in high-level
languages like Java, which reclaims memory from objects that are
no longer referenced.
o Proper GC tuning and profiling are critical to reducing pause
times and ensuring minimal impact on application throughput.
75. Thread Dump
o A snapshot of all threads and their execution state within a
running application, providing detailed call stacks and
synchronization status.
o Analyzing thread dumps is invaluable for diagnosing deadlocks,
performance bottlenecks, and contention issues in multi-
threaded environments.

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 76. Reverse Proxy
o A server that receives client requests and forwards them to one or
more backend servers, often abstracting and load balancing
services.
o It can perform caching, SSL termination, and security filtering,
thus improving overall system performance and security.
77. Forward Proxy
o An intermediary server that processes client requests on behalf of
external servers, often used for internet access control and
content caching.
o It provides anonymity, security filtering, and bandwidth
optimization by caching frequently accessed resources.
78. Virtualization
o The technique of creating virtual versions of hardware platforms,
storage devices, or network resources to maximize utilization and
flexibility.
o Virtualization abstracts physical resources, enabling multiple
virtual machines to run concurrently on a single physical host
with isolated environments.
79. Hypervisor
o Software that creates and manages virtual machines (VMs) by
abstracting and partitioning physical hardware resources.
o Examples include VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, and KVM,
which enable multi-tenancy and improved resource utilization
within data centers.
80. Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
o The management of infrastructure (networks, servers, storage)
through code and configuration files rather than manual
processes.
o Tools like Terraform and AWS CloudFormation enforce version
control, repeatability, and automated deployment of
infrastructure components.
81. Immutable Artifact
o A build output (such as a container image or compiled binary)
that, once generated, is not altered.
o This immutability ensures that deployments are consistent,
traceable, and can be reliably rolled back if necessary.

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 82. Rollback
o The controlled process of reverting a system or application to a
previous stable version after identifying issues in the new release.
o Rollbacks are a critical safety mechanism in deployments and
rely on versioning and immutable artifacts for successful
restoration.
83. Hotfix
o A rapid and often urgent update deployed to address critical
issues in a production environment without waiting for the regular
release cycle.
o Hotfixes aim to resolve security vulnerabilities or performance
regressions swiftly, often with minimal testing in a controlled
release pipeline.
84. Zero Downtime Deployment
o Deployment techniques—such as rolling updates, blue-green
deployment, or canary releases—that ensure uninterrupted
service availability during updates.
o This practice requires strategies to manage state, traffic
redirection, and real-time health monitoring to avoid any service
disruptions.
85. Data Partitioning
o The segmentation of large datasets into discrete, manageable
chunks (partitions or shards) to improve query efficiency and
system scalability.
o Data partitioning helps distribute I/O operations and processing
loads, often using range, hash, or list partitioning methods in
databases.
86. Eventual Consistency
o A consistency model in distributed systems where updates
propagate asynchronously, ensuring that all nodes will become
consistent over time.
o This model prioritizes availability and partition tolerance,
accepting temporary discrepancies in favor of system scalability.
87. Strong Consistency
o A data consistency model ensuring that once a data update is
committed, all subsequent read operations reflect that change
immediately across all nodes.

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 o Strong consistency is often enforced in traditional RDBMS or
through distributed consensus protocols (e.g., Paxos, Raft),
potentially at the expense of latency.
88. Message Queue
o A communication middleware that enables asynchronous
message passing between producers and consumers, decoupling
processing through queuing.
o Systems like RabbitMQ or Apache Kafka provide durable and
reliable queuing mechanisms to handle high volumes of
messages while ensuring delivery guarantees.
89. Publish-Subscribe (Pub/Sub)
o An asynchronous messaging pattern where publishers broadcast
messages to topics, and subscribers receive messages based on
their interests.
o This decouples the sender and receiver, allowing for highly
scalable, real-time distribution of information across distributed
systems.
90. Leader Election
o A consensus process in distributed systems where nodes
determine a single coordinator (leader) to manage tasks or
resources.
o Leader election algorithms (e.g., Bully Algorithm, Raft) are
essential for coordination, preventing conflicts, and ensuring
reliable system operations.
91. Idempotency
o A property of operations where executing the same request
multiple times produces the same result without side effects
beyond the initial application.
o Idempotency is crucial for reliable API design and handling retries
in distributed systems to avoid unintended duplicate
transactions.
92. Tokenization
o The process of replacing sensitive data with non-sensitive
placeholders (tokens) that can be mapped back only with
authorized access.

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 o This technique is employed to secure data in transit or at rest,
reducing exposure of personal or confidential information in
applications.
93. Redundancy
o The duplication of critical components or functions to increase
system reliability, ensuring that failure of one element does not
lead to system collapse.
o Redundancy is implemented via clustering, replication, or failover
mechanisms, enhancing fault tolerance and continuous
availability.
94. Elastic Load Balancer (ELB)
o A cloud-based load balancing solution that dynamically
distributes incoming application traffic across multiple backend
instances.
o ELBs, such as those offered by AWS, integrate health checks and
auto-scaling to adapt to varying load conditions in real time.
95. Health Check
o Automated probes or tests that determine whether a system
component, such as a server or microservice, is functioning
correctly.
o Health checks are integral to load balancers and orchestration
systems, triggering automatic recovery or rerouting when failures
are detected.
96. Middleware Caching
o Caching implemented at the middleware layer to store and
rapidly serve frequently requested data, reducing downstream
processing.
o It minimizes latency by offloading repetitive data retrieval
operations and thereby alleviates the load on databases or
backend services.
97. Rate Throttling
o Controlling the flow of requests to a service by enforcing a
maximum number of allowed operations per time unit.
o This protects the system from overload during traffic bursts,
ensuring equitable resource usage and system stability.

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 98. Namespace
o A logical partition within systems like Kubernetes that isolates
resources (pods, services, etc.) to enforce organizational
boundaries and manage access control.
o Namespaces facilitate multi-tenancy and prevent resource
conflicts by segregating workloads within the same cluster.
99. Autoscaling
o The dynamic adjustment of computing resources based on real-
time monitoring metrics, such as CPU or memory utilization.
o Autoscaling helps maintain performance targets while optimizing
cost efficiency by ensuring that resources match the current
demand.

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 100. Cold Start

• The initialization latency experienced when a service, container, or

serverless function is invoked for the first time, requiring loading of
dependencies and configurations.
• Critical in ephemeral environments where the delay can significantly
impact user experience, especially under sporadic request patterns.

101. Warm Start

• A scenario where pre-initialized resources or containers remain

available to handle incoming requests quickly, reducing startup
latency.
• Achieved by keeping instances "warm" (persistently allocated) to avoid
the overhead of reinitialization, ensuring faster response times.

102. API Rate Limiting

• A mechanism that restricts the number of API calls a client can make in
a specific timeframe to protect backend services.
• Helps prevent abuse, mitigates the risk of server overload, and
maintains overall system performance by enforcing strict quotas.

103. Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA)

• A Kubernetes feature that automatically adjusts the number of pod

replicas in a deployment based on real-time resource metrics (e.g.,
CPU, memory).
• Ensures that applications dynamically scale to meet load variations,
maintaining performance and efficiency.

104. StatefulSet

• A Kubernetes controller designed for managing stateful applications

that require stable network identities and persistent storage.
• Guarantees ordered deployment, scaling, and updates, which is
essential for maintaining data consistency in systems like databases.

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 105. DaemonSet

• A Kubernetes configuration ensuring that a copy of a specific pod runs

on all (or selected) nodes throughout the cluster.
• Commonly used for deploying system-level services (e.g., logging,
monitoring, security agents) consistently across nodes.

106. CronJob

• A scheduled task in Kubernetes configured to run at specific times or

intervals using cron syntax.
• Automates repetitive operations such as backups, report generation, or
clean-up tasks, ensuring regular maintenance without manual
intervention.

107. Disaster Recovery (DR)

• A comprehensive set of policies and procedures to restore critical

systems and data after catastrophic failures or significant disruptions.
• Involves strategies like data backups, offsite replication, and
predefined failover processes to minimize downtime and data loss.

108. Rolling Update

• A deployment strategy that incrementally replaces old application

instances with new ones, ensuring that some instances remain
operational throughout the process.
• Minimizes service disruption and allows for continuous monitoring of
performance, with the ability to rollback if issues arise.

109. Distributed Lock

• A synchronization mechanism that ensures only one process or node

can access a shared resource or execute a critical section at any given
time in a distributed system.
• Typically implemented using tools like ZooKeeper or Redis, distributed
locks prevent race conditions and maintain data consistency.

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 110. Hot Path

• The section of code or execution path that is most frequently invoked

and critically influences overall system performance.
• Optimizing the hot path (through algorithm improvements or hardware
acceleration) can significantly reduce latency and boost throughput.

111. Warm Path

• A data processing route optimized for near-real-time analytics, where

timely processing is important but not as critical as strict low-latency
requirements.
• Typically leverages in-memory processing and batch techniques to
balance speed with resource efficiency.

112. Cold Path

• The part of a data processing pipeline designed for non-real-time, batch

processing where latency is less critical than cost efficiency and
throughput.
• Often used for long-term analytics, data warehousing, or offline
reporting using frameworks like Hadoop.

113. Service Level Agreement (SLA)

• A formal contract that specifies performance, uptime, and

responsiveness targets agreed upon between a service provider and its
clients.
• Defines measurable objectives and incorporates remediation or penalty
clauses for non-compliance, ensuring accountability and reliability.

114. Service Level Indicator (SLI)

• A specific, quantifiable metric (such as response time, error rate, or

availability) used to evaluate a service’s performance against its SLA.
• Provides the necessary data to assess whether the service is meeting
its agreed-upon performance standards.

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 115. Service Level Objective (SLO)

• A clearly defined target value or range for an SLI, setting the acceptable
performance threshold for a service over a period.
• Used as a performance benchmark to trigger alerts and corrective
actions when the service deviates from expected behavior.

116. Synthetic Monitoring

• The use of automated, scripted transactions to simulate user

interactions and continuously test service performance from various
locations.
• Enables proactive identification of issues by emulating realistic usage
scenarios under controlled conditions.

117. Real User Monitoring (RUM)

• The collection and analysis of performance data directly from real users
interacting with the application in production.
• Provides a detailed understanding of end-user experience, capturing
variations across different geographies and device types.

118. Application Performance Monitoring (APM)

• A suite of tools and practices that continuously track, analyze, and

optimize the performance of an application’s code, infrastructure, and
transactions.
• Combines metrics, traces, and logs to provide deep diagnostics,
helping engineers quickly identify and resolve performance
bottlenecks.

119. Memory Leak

• A situation in which an application fails to release memory that is no

longer needed, resulting in gradual depletion of available memory over
time.
• Can lead to severe performance degradation or system crashes,
necessitating careful profiling and code analysis to identify and correct
the leak.

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 120. Resource Utilization

• The measurement of how efficiently system resources (CPU, memory,

disk I/O, network bandwidth) are being consumed under operational
load.
• Monitoring resource utilization is key to identifying inefficiencies and
making informed decisions on scaling or optimization.

121. Thread Pool

• A collection of pre-instantiated threads that are used to execute

multiple tasks concurrently, reducing the overhead of thread creation.
• Improves performance in multi-threaded applications by managing
resource allocation and ensuring timely processing of queued tasks.

122. Bottleneck Analysis

• The systematic examination of system components to identify limiting

factors that restrict overall performance.
• Helps pinpoint hardware or software constraints so targeted
optimizations can be implemented to improve throughput and
efficiency.

123. Lock Contention

• A scenario in which multiple threads or processes simultaneously

compete to acquire the same synchronization lock, resulting in delays.
• High lock contention often signals the need for improved concurrency
control or refactoring to reduce critical section scope.

124. Deadlock

• A state where two or more processes are each waiting indefinitely for
the other to release a resource, resulting in a standstill.
• Preventing deadlocks involves designing systems with careful resource
management, employing timeouts, and applying deadlock detection
algorithms.

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 125. CPU Utilization

• The percentage of the CPU’s processing capacity that is actively used

by running tasks and processes at any given time.
• High CPU utilization may indicate intensive computation or inefficient
processes, necessitating performance tuning or hardware upgrades.

126. Memory Utilization

• The ratio of memory currently in use to the total available memory,

including allocations in the JVM heap, caches, and buffers.
• Monitoring memory utilization is crucial for detecting leaks, planning for
capacity increases, and optimizing overall system performance.

127. Garbage Collection Tuning

• The process of configuring and optimizing garbage collection

parameters (heap size, GC algorithms, pause thresholds) in managed
runtimes such as the JVM.
• Effective tuning minimizes GC pause times and enhances throughput
by ensuring timely reclamation of unused memory.

128. Exception Handling

• The mechanism for capturing and managing errors during runtime to

prevent unexpected application termination and allow graceful
recovery.
• Robust exception handling contributes to system stability and provides
detailed diagnostic information for debugging performance issues.

129. Instrumentation

• The integration of monitoring code or agents (such as APM tools) into an

application to capture detailed performance metrics and operational
data.
• Instrumentation enables fine-grained analysis of latency, throughput,
and resource consumption, facilitating proactive optimization.

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 130. Profiling Overhead

• The additional CPU, memory, or I/O cost incurred by the tools and
processes used for monitoring and profiling application performance.
• It is essential to minimize profiling overhead to ensure that
measurement tools do not significantly impact the performance being
evaluated.

131. Performance Budget

• A pre-established limit on critical performance metrics (e.g., load time,

resource usage) that guides development and optimization efforts.
• Serves as a quantitative constraint ensuring that new features or code
changes do not exceed established performance thresholds.

132. Latency Budget

• The total permissible delay allocated across the various components or

stages involved in processing a request.
• Distributing a latency budget across services helps identify and
optimize individual components contributing to overall response time.

133. Cache Invalidation

• The process of removing or refreshing stale data from a cache to ensure

that the information served remains consistent with the underlying data
source.
• Effective cache invalidation strategies (time-based, event-driven) are
critical for maintaining data integrity while benefiting from the speed of
caching.

134. Cache Hit Ratio

• The proportion of cache accesses that result in a successful data

retrieval, compared to total cache lookups.
• A high cache hit ratio indicates efficient caching mechanisms, which
reduce the need for slower, repeated backend data fetches.

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 135. Thundering Herd

• A phenomenon where a large number of processes or requests

simultaneously attempt to access a shared resource, overwhelming the
system.
• Mitigation strategies include randomized backoff, request queuing, and
rate limiting to distribute the load more evenly.

136. Hot Code Path

• The segment of an application’s code that is executed most frequently

and thus has a significant impact on performance.
• Optimizations in the hot code path (via refactoring or algorithmic
improvements) can dramatically reduce response times and resource
usage.

137. Asynchronous Processing

• A programming paradigm that allows tasks to be executed

independently of the main execution thread, avoiding blocking
operations.
• Enhances application responsiveness by leveraging callbacks, futures,
or event loops to process tasks concurrently.

138. I/O Wait

• The duration during which a process is idle while waiting for

input/output operations (such as disk reads/writes or network
transfers) to complete.
• High I/O wait times are indicative of bottlenecks in storage or network
subsystems, often prompting hardware upgrades or optimization of I/O
patterns.

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 139. Back Pressure

• A control mechanism that signals data producers to slow down when

the downstream consumers are overwhelmed, thereby preventing
overload.
• Vital in streaming and high-throughput systems, back pressure ensures
smooth operation and prevents resource exhaustion.

140. Service Dependency

• The inter-relationship between various services where the performance

of one system component directly impacts others.
• Mapping and managing these dependencies is crucial for diagnosing
performance issues and ensuring that cascading failures are prevented.

141. Transaction Tracing

• The end-to-end tracking of a business transaction across various

services and system components, capturing detailed timing and
context.
• Provides granular visibility into the complete lifecycle of a transaction,
enabling pinpoint identification of performance bottlenecks.

142. Tracing Span

• A discrete unit or segment within a distributed trace that encapsulates

the start, end, and metadata of a single operation.
• Aggregated spans form a complete trace, allowing in-depth analysis of
latency and operational context across distributed systems.

143. Burst Traffic Management

• Techniques to handle sudden, short-term spikes in traffic without

compromising system stability or performance.
• Involves autoscaling, buffering, and rate limiting to absorb transient
surges while maintaining quality of service.

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 144. Concurrency Control

• Mechanisms such as locks, semaphores, or optimistic concurrency

used to manage simultaneous access to shared resources in multi-
threaded or distributed environments.
• Ensures data integrity and orderly execution when many processes or
threads operate concurrently under high load.

145. SLO Violation

• An occurrence wherein a service fails to meet its defined Service Level

Objective, signaling degraded performance or reliability.
• Triggers alerts and detailed investigations to determine root causes and
implement corrective measures promptly.

146. Distributed Caching

• The spread of cache storage across multiple nodes or servers to provide

faster data retrieval and improved redundancy.
• Systems like Redis or Memcached are used in distributed caching to
reduce load on primary data stores and lower response times.

147. Connection Pooling

• A resource management technique that maintains a pool of active

connections (to databases or network services) for reuse in multiple
requests.
• Reduces the overhead of establishing new connections, thereby
significantly enhancing overall request processing speed.

148. JVM Tuning

• The process of configuring Java Virtual Machine parameters (e.g., heap

size, garbage collector settings, thread configurations) to optimize
application performance.
• Critical for balancing throughput, memory efficiency, and latency in
Java applications under varying workloads.

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 149. Code Optimization

• The systematic refinement of software code to improve execution

speed, reduce resource consumption, and lower latency.
• Involves profiling, algorithmic improvements, and low-level
enhancements (e.g., loop unrolling, inlining) to achieve measurable
performance gains.

150. Performance Regression

• A decline in system performance or efficiency introduced by new code

changes, upgrades, or configuration modifications compared to
previous benchmarks.
• Continuous performance regression testing is essential to quickly
detect and remediate any degradations before they impact end users.

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