CGI

Definitions

CGI is Common Gateway Interface, an early standard for invoking server-side programs from web servers. It is commonly used for generating dynamic web responses before modern app servers became standard, where teams need predictable behavior under real workloads rather than toy examples. Practitioners pay attention to process startup cost, security, and operational simplicity, because those factors usually determine whether the approach improves quality, latency, reliability, or operating cost in production.
In plain English: CGI is a software engineering concept that helps developers structure code, run systems, or debug behavior more reliably in real projects.
Example: "We standardized on CGI in this service because the old approach was fragile under load; the new implementation reduced operational surprises and made the codebase easier for the next engineer to reason about."