Using GenServers for Distributed State Management in Elixir Applications

In this article, Pulkit Goyal explores how to manage distributed state in Phoenix applications using Elixir's GenServer. He describes a use case of implementing a token bucket rate limiter for a CRUD API to ensure fair usage. The article details how to set up a single-node rate limiter with a GenServer and how to scale this solution across multiple nodes using distributed systems techniques. Key concepts such as state partitioning, replication, and conflict resolution using CRDTs are explained, alongside practical code implementations. The article aims to provide foundational knowledge necessary for building scalable systems that maintain data integrity and fault tolerance.