HTTP/3
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
HTTP/3 is the newest version of HTTP and it ditches TCP entirely in favor of QUIC. If TCP is a postal truck and HTTP/2 is stuffing multiple packages in it, HTTP/3 is switching to a faster delivery drone. Less latency, better performance on lossy connections.
Real Talk
HTTP/3 is built on QUIC instead of TCP. It solves TCP's head-of-line blocking at the transport layer, enables faster connection establishment (0-RTT), and improves performance on unreliable networks. Uses UDP under the hood with reliability built into QUIC itself.
When You'll Hear This
"Cloudflare supports HTTP/3 — enable it for faster load times." / "HTTP/3 handles packet loss better than HTTP/2 on mobile networks."
Related Terms
HTTP/2
HTTP/2 is a supercharged version of HTTP. With HTTP/1.1, you could only ask for one thing at a time per connection.
Latency
Latency is the delay before data starts moving — the time it takes for a request to go from your device to the server and back.
QUIC (Quick UDP Internet Connections)
QUIC is Google's invention that takes the speed of UDP and adds the reliability of TCP, all while encrypting everything.
TLS Handshake (Transport Layer Security Handshake)
The TLS handshake is the 'hello, do we trust each other?' ceremony that happens before any HTTPS data flows.
UDP (User Datagram Protocol)
UDP is like shouting information across a room — fast but no guarantee anyone heard you. There's no handshake, no confirmation.