> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://amartyushov.gitbook.io/tech/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://amartyushov.gitbook.io/tech/system-design/algorithms.md).
# Algorithms
### Distributed Hash Tables
A Distributed Hash Table (DHT) is a distributed system that provides a decentralized key-value store. It is used in peer-to-peer (P2P) networks to store and retrieve information in a scalable and fault-tolerant manner.
In a DHT, each participating node stores a subset of the key-value pairs, and a mapping function is used to assign keys to nodes. This allows nodes to locate the value associated with a given key by querying only a small subset of nodes, typically those responsible for keys close to the given key in the mapping space.
DHTs provide several desirable properties, such as self-organization, fault-tolerance, load-balancing, and efficient routing. They are commonly used in P2P file sharing systems, content distribution networks, and distributed databases.
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