What does a span represent in OpenTelemetry?

In OpenTelemetry, a span represents a single operation within a trace. This concept is pivotal in distributed tracing, where a trace is essentially a record of the execution path that a request takes across various services and components in a system. Each span details a specific operation or task, providing context such as its start and end times, the duration of the operation, any associated metadata, and its relationship to other spans within the trace.

Spans allow developers and operators to understand how different parts of a system interact and to visualize the performance of each operation over time. The detailed data collected within spans aids in identifying bottlenecks, understanding latency, and improving overall system performance, which is essential for effective observability and troubleshooting of distributed applications.