# non-determinism

CEFR C1 · Noun

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/non-determinism
Updated: 2026-09-28

## Definition

behavior in a computer system where giving the exact same instructions can produce different results due to randomness or timing.

For teachers: the computational property whereby a system or algorithm can exhibit different behaviors or outputs on successive runs despite receiving identical initial inputs.

## Examples

- Rolling dice is a form of non-determinism because each shake yields an unpredictable number.
- Race conditions in concurrent software threads often introduce unwanted non-determinism into database transactions.
- Non-determinism in multi-threaded CUDA kernels complicates the bitwise reproduction of gradient updates across parallel training clusters.

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