Histogram
A metric data structure that records the distribution of observed values across buckets or statistical summaries rather than storing only a single aggregate.
Observability Context
A histogram records a distribution rather than only one aggregate value, making it suitable for request latency, payload size, or other measurements where spread and tails matter. Bucket boundaries should reflect the workload range and the decisions that operators need to make.
Statistical Boundary
A percentile reconstructed from histogram buckets is generally an estimate, not necessarily the exact percentile of the raw observations. Bucket layout determines the resolution of that estimate.