What is the difference between TCP and UDP protocols?

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) are transport protocols of the TCP/IP stack.

Feature	TCP	UDP
Connection Type	Connection-oriented	Connectionless
Reliability	High (guaranteed delivery, packet order)	Low (no guarantees)
Packet Order	Guaranteed	Not guaranteed
Error Control	Present (loss correction, duplicates)	Present (detection only, no correction)
Flow Control	Present	Absent
Speed	Lower (due to overhead)	Higher
Header Size	20-60 bytes	8 bytes
Use Cases	HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, SSH, SMTP	DNS, DHCP, SNMP, VoIP, streaming video

Key Differences:

• TCP establishes a three-way handshake to create a reliable connection, guarantees packet delivery in the correct order, and retransmits lost packets. This makes it ideal for applications where data accuracy is important (e.g., web pages, file transfer).
• UDP sends packets without establishing a connection beforehand and without delivery or order guarantees. This makes it faster and more efficient for applications where small data losses are acceptable or low latency is crucial (e.g., online gaming, streaming media).