Zustandslose

Zustandslose is a German adjective meaning "without state" or "stateless," commonly used in technical contexts to describe systems, components or protocols that do not retain information about past interactions. The term derives from Zustand ("state") and the suffix -los ("without").

In computing and network design, zustandslose systems treat each request as independent, carrying all necessary context within the request itself or relying on external storage. The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and many RESTful APIs are typical examples: servers do not store session-specific data between requests. Advantages of zustandslose designs include simpler scaling, easier fault tolerance, and reduced resource requirements per instance. They also encourage idempotent operations and clearer separation of concerns.

Trade-offs involve the need to manage state externally when persistence is required, which can introduce complexity, latency or consistency challenges. Authentication, user sessions and transactions often require additional mechanisms such as tokens, databases or distributed caches. In contrast, zustandsbehaftete (stateful) systems maintain context internally, which can simplify some workflows but complicate scaling and recovery.

Beyond computing, the adjective can describe processes or devices that do not preserve prior conditions, for example in stateless protocols, certain algorithms, or ephemeral services. Its usage signals architectural choices about where and how state is represented and managed.