{
  "slug": "sloppy-quorum",
  "term": "Sloppy quorum",
  "aliases": [],
  "definition": "A sloppy quorum allows reachable fallback nodes outside a key's normal replica set to participate when intended replicas are unavailable.",
  "note": "Historical Dynamo selects the first N healthy nodes in its preference list and uses hinted handoff for temporary copies. Different operations can use different replica sets, so R + W > N alone cannot prove their overlap. [dynamo]",
  "limitations": [
    {
      "text": "This describes the 2007 Dynamo design, not a guarantee about today's DynamoDB.",
      "citationIds": [
        "dynamo"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "related": [
    "quorum-intersection",
    "hinted-handoff"
  ],
  "citations": [
    {
      "id": "dynamo",
      "title": "DeCandia et al. Dynamo: Amazon's Highly Available Key-value Store, SOSP 2007, sections 4.5-4.6.",
      "url": "https://cdn.amazon.science/ac/1d/eb50c4064c538c8ac440ce6a1d91/dynamo-amazons-highly-available-key-value-store.pdf",
      "accessed": "2026-10-13"
    },
    {
      "id": "hesela-repair",
      "title": "Replica repair: what has actually converged?",
      "url": "https://hesela.com/analyses/replica-repair-coverage/",
      "accessed": "2026-10-13"
    }
  ],
  "status": "shipping",
  "advantages": [],
  "supersedes": [],
  "supersededBy": [],
  "firstSeen": null,
  "lastSeen": null,
  "updated": "2026-10-13"
}