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Distributed Transactions

Two-phase commit and why it blocks, sagas and compensation, the dual-write problem and the outbox, the isolation you lose, and how modern systems get atomicity anyway.

1
Walk through two-phase commit — and explain exactly what people mean when they call it blocking.
staff🎬 animated
✓
2
Checkout spans order, payment and inventory services. Design it as a saga — and be honest about what you gave up.
senior
✓
3
You must update your database and publish an event. Why can't you just do both, and what's the correct pattern?
senior
✓
4
A saga gives you A, C and D but no I. Which anomalies does that create, and how do you contain them?
architect
✓
5
When do you genuinely need atomic commit across services — and how do modern distributed databases get it without the blocking?
architect
✓

Walk through two-phase commit — and explain exactly what people mean when they call it blocking.

Checkout spans order, payment and inventory services. Design it as a saga — and be honest about what you gave up.

You must update your database and publish an event. Why can't you just do both, and what's the correct pattern?

A saga gives you A, C and D but no I. Which anomalies does that create, and how do you contain them?

When do you genuinely need atomic commit across services — and how do modern distributed databases get it without the blocking?