AI engineering glossary · Computing foundations
What is SYN (three-way handshake)?
Three-way handshake (also called SYN, SYN-ACK, TCP handshake): The exchange used by TCP to open a connection: the client sends a SYN, the server replies with SYN-ACK, and the client answers with ACK. It confirms both sides are ready and agrees on starting sequence numbers.
Three-way handshake: an example
Before your browser sends any page request, it and the server complete the three messages SYN, SYN-ACK, ACK.
Related terms
More Computing foundations terms
- Throughput
- Time zone
- Transistor
- Transport Layer Security
- Two's complement
- UDP
- Unicode
- Uniform Resource Locator
Where you learn it
Three-way handshake is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.