Visualizers
Learn by moving things
Interactive explainers for the ideas behind retrieval, embeddings, and agents. A formula tells you what is true; dragging a vector shows you why. Each one also appears inside the article it belongs to, and runs entirely in your browser, so drag, poke, and break it.
Hash the URL so a given page always lands on the same server. The trick behind cache tiers: each item lives on one server and stays warm.
Hash the URL to pick a server, so a given page always lands on the same one. Perfect for caches: each item lives on one server, so it stays warm.
Consistent hashing: the ring
From: How a Load Balancer Sticks →Servers and keys on a ring; each key belongs to the next server clockwise. Remove or add a server and only its slice of keys moves, about 1/N, instead of nearly all of them.
Start: three servers on the ring. Each key belongs to the next server going clockwise.
Maglev: one fast lookup table
From: How a Load Balancer Sticks →Google's Maglev does consistent hashing's job with a single fixed lookup table: near-perfect even distribution and O(1) lookups, ideal for the fastest layer 4 balancers.
Google's Maglev builds a single fixed lookup table instead of a ring: near-perfect even distribution and O(1) lookups, ideal for very fast layer 4 balancers. The table is rebuilt only when servers join or leave.