This article will examine read path and write path operations and techniques in detail, including the fundamental tradeoffs between fast reads and correct writes, consistency definitions, and specific strategies.

In this article, we will look at read path and write path operations and techniques in detail. Here's what we will cover. Why fast reads and correct writes require opposing data structures; Precomputation and duplication, the single operation underneath every read optimization; Two different definitions of consistency, and the bugs caused by treating them as one; Indexes, denormalization, caching, read replicas, materialized views, purpose-built read stores, fan-out on write versus read, and CQRS; For each strategy, its sync mechanism, staleness window, and characteristic failure mode; Write-heavy systems, where the ratio inverts and the decisions reverse with it.

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