Understanding the tradeoffs is very important not only in system design interviews but also designing real-world systems. When we talk about data replication, there is a fundamental tradeoff between latency and consistency. It is illustrated by the diagram below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PACELC_theorem - In case of network partitioning (P) in a distributed computer system, one has to choose between availability (A) and consistency (C) (as per the CAP theorem), but else (E), even when the system is running normally in the absence of partitions, one has to choose between latency (L) and loss of consistency (C).
Latency and consistency tradeoffs for data replication
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PACELC_theorem - In case of network partitioning (P) in a distributed computer system, one has to choose between availability (A) and consistency (C) (as per the CAP theorem), but else (E), even when the system is running normally in the absence of partitions, one has to choose between latency (L) and loss of consistency (C).