Quorum Writes (W=2) Versus Single-Master Writes
TradeoffDistributed SystemsSeniorStaffUpdated
A user-profile service with N=3 replicas per key, light contention, multi-region.
Short answer: Quorum writes (W=2). Quorum survives a replica down without failover; single-master needs leader election (seconds of unavailability) on every primary loss.
The Two Options
A
Quorum writes (W=2)
B
Single-master writes
Drill This: Your Pick First
The Better Pick
Option A
Quorum writes (W=2)
Quorum survives a replica down without failover; single-master needs leader election (seconds of unavailability) on every primary loss. For multi-region, quorum sidesteps the WAN-pinned leader.
When the Other One Wins
Single-master writes
If you need linearizable reads and cross-key transactions, a single master (or Raft group) is much simpler than gluing quorum + version vectors + repair.