What does distributed tracing track in an application?

Distributed tracing effectively tracks a single request as it traverses through multiple services within an application. This method allows developers and operations teams to monitor the performance and timing of each component involved in handling that request, facilitating the identification of bottlenecks or failures in the application workflow. By observing how individual requests interact with various services, teams gain insights into latencies, errors, and service dependencies.

This focused approach is critical because it enables more granular visibility into the application's behavior and performance. By analyzing the path of a request, teams can pinpoint where issues may arise in the service architecture, optimize resource allocation, and enhance overall user experiences.

The other options, while related to application monitoring and architecture, do not accurately convey the specific function of distributed tracing. For instance, tracking the entire application workflow encompasses broader monitoring aspects, while logs generated may not detail the execution flow as tracing does. Likewise, connections between different networks aren't the primary focus of tracing but rather pertain to network topology and connectivity issues.