What is throughput?

Throughput is how much stuff can move from one place to another in a certain amount of time.

Imagine you're at a toy store, and there's a line of kids waiting to get their favorite candy. The throughput would be like how many kids can get their candy every minute. If the cashier is super fast and the kids don’t take too long to pick their treat, more kids can get candy in less time, that’s high throughput!

Think of a water slide. If one kid goes down at a time, not many kids can enjoy the slide in an hour. But if the slide is wide and several kids can go down at once, more kids can have fun, that's higher throughput.

You see throughput everywhere! A printer’s throughput is how many pages it can print in a minute. A car wash has throughput too, how many cars can be washed in an hour. Even your mom’s kitchen has throughput: how many cookies she can bake before the next batch goes into the oven.

Throughput isn’t magic, it's just about how much stuff moves from one place to another, and how fast!