System Design · Senior · Question 13 of 75
How does OT differ from CRDT in collaborative editing?
- ✓Correct answer: OT transforms operations via a server, CRDTs converge on their own
- 2OT works only with images and CRDT only with text
- 3CRDT requires locking the document for every edit
Explanation
Operational Transformation (Google Docs) adjusts concurrent operations relative to each other, which is easier with an arbiter server. CRDTs (Yjs, Automerge) are structures whose states mathematically merge into one in any order; they're convenient for offline and P2P but carry metadata.