ACID — Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability
Definition: The four guarantees a traditional database transaction provides. ACID is why banks run on Postgres-style systems and not eventually-consistent stores.
Example
In engineering planning, you'll often hear something like: "Let's pull the latest ACID numbers before we make a call" — shorthand for atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability.
When you'll hear it
ACID shows up most often in engineering planning, architecture reviews, and sprint retrospectives. When someone uses it, they're usually referring to atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability — and they expect the room to already know what that means.
FAQs
What does ACID stand for?
ACID stands for Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability.
What does ACID mean in technology and engineering?
The four guarantees a traditional database transaction provides. ACID is why banks run on Postgres-style systems and not eventually-consistent stores.
Where will I hear ACID used at work?
ACID comes up most often in engineering planning, architecture reviews, and sprint retrospectives. It's used as shorthand for atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability, so people assume you already know the term.
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