DAG

Directed Acyclic Graph

Workflow graph -- Airflow/dbt pipelines, no cycles.

When you'd see it: Data pipelines and workflow orchestration. Airflow and dbt model their work as DAGs.

Why it matters: A DAG represents steps and their dependencies with no cycles, so a system knows what must run before what and what can run in parallel. It is the core abstraction behind modern pipeline tools.