What is distributed tracing?

So many of you developers will be wondering that what is distributed tracing?

Distributed tracing is a technique used to monitor and analyze the flow of a single user request as it travels through various microservices within a distributed application. It provides a visual representation of the request’s journey, allowing developers to identify bottlenecks, troubleshoot errors, and gain insights into overall application performance.

Imagine a user requesting a product page on an e-commerce website. Distributed tracing would track that request as it interacts with the authentication service, product database, shopping cart service, and payment gateway – all independent microservices working together. By visualizing this entire flow, developers can pinpoint where delays occur or where errors might be originating.