Bloom Filter

Explaining how Bloom filters work with a tailored example.

What a Bloom filter is: a probabilistic data structure that answers “have I seen this before?” using far less memory than storing the actual list of items — at the cost of occasionally saying “maybe yes” when the real answer is “no.” It never produces a false “no” when the true answer is “yes” — that guarantee is exactly why it fits this problem (you never want to accidentally re-show someone you genuinely swiped on).