Explain what is meant by strong consistency in distributed systems.

Strong consistency in distributed systems means that after a successful write operation, all subsequent read operations will guaranteedly see that write or more recent data. In simpler terms, all nodes in the system have the same data state at any given time after the write.

This is important to prevent situations where different clients receive different versions of data. For example, if a user updates their profile, the next request should see the updated data on all servers.

In distributed systems, strong consistency is achieved through synchronization and locking, which can impact performance and latency, especially with geographically distributed nodes.