In a stateful architecture, the server stores session data, such as login status or shopping cart contents, tying the client to a specific server.
To address the issues of stateful architectures, stateless architectures use tokens for authentication instead of storing state on servers.
In stateless architectures, each client request must contain all necessary information for independent processing by the server.
Advantages of stateless architectures include increased scalability, as any server can handle requests, and reduced dependency on specific servers.
On the other hand, stateful architectures maintain client session data between requests, relying on previous interactions.
Functions can also be categorized as stateful or stateless depending on their independence from external variables.
Examples of stateless architectures include REST APIs, where each request carries its state, while common stateful examples include database connections.
In real-world applications, session keys are often used to maintain user sessions, stored in in-memory databases like Redis for efficient access by all servers.
Both stateful and stateless approaches have pros and cons, with stateful architectures requiring additional infrastructure and management for session data.
The decision to use stateful or stateless architecture depends on factors like scalability, flexibility, performance, and maintenance needs of the application.