Protocol Buffer

Noun · Development

Definitions

  1. A language-neutral, binary serialization format developed by Google (commonly called protobuf) in which data structures are defined in .proto schema files and compiled into generated code for multiple languages. Protobufs are smaller and faster to parse than JSON, and provide backward-compatible schema evolution through field numbering.

    In plain English: A compact, efficient way to package data for sending between systems, faster and smaller than JSON but not human-readable.

    Example: "We switched the internal service communication from JSON to Protocol Buffers and cut serialization time by 10x."

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