Suggest an editImprove this articleRefine the answer for “What is load balancing (load balancing)?”. Your changes go to moderation before they’re published.Approval requiredContentWhat you’re changing🇺🇸EN🇺🇦UAPreviewTitle (EN)Short answer (EN)**Load balancing** is a mechanism that evenly spreads incoming requests across several servers so a system runs **faster, more stably, and without overload**: a load balancer decides which server to route a request to, taking into account the number of active connections, response time, the user's location, or a server's role (master/replica). **Key point:** the main algorithms are `Round Robin` (in turn), `Least Connections` (to the server with the fewest active connections), and `IP Hash` (a user always lands on the same server via a hash of their IP); the goals are even load, fault tolerance, and scalability.Shown above the full answer for quick recall.Answer (EN)Image**Load balancing** is a mechanism that evenly spreads incoming requests across several servers so a system runs **faster, more stably, and without overload**. ### How it works When a database (or web application) receives a flood of requests, the load balancer decides **which server to route each one to**. It can take into account: - the current number of active connections, - response time, - the user's location, - priority server roles (e.g. master / replicas). ### The main goals 1. **Even load.** No single server gets swamped with requests. 2. **Fault tolerance.** If one server goes down, requests get redirected to others. 3. **Scalability.** New servers can be added without stopping the system. ### Examples of balancing algorithms - **Round Robin.** Requests get distributed in turn. - **Least Connections.** Goes to the server with the fewest active connections. - **IP Hash.** A user always lands on the same server, based on a hash of their IP. **Summary:** Load balancing is a "traffic distributor" that makes sure a system's resources are used efficiently and that users don't experience overloads or downtime.For the reviewerNote to the moderator (optional)Visible only to the moderator. Helps review go faster.