Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary global time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is a coordinated time scale maintained by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) and the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS), using highly precise atomic clocks. UTC serves as the basis for civil time worldwide, with time zones defined as offsets from UTC.
Developers should understand UTC to handle time-related data correctly in applications, especially for distributed systems, international services, or scheduling across time zones. It is essential for avoiding timezone-related bugs, ensuring data consistency in databases, and implementing features like timestamps, logging, and event synchronization in global software.