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by gbelote 5477 days ago
Not really, it depends on the context and is somewhat of a relative word (like "fast"). I personally interpret "real time" as "practically instant".

In the case of RT analytics, there's probably very small practical difference between 1s and 30s: it's typically dwarfed by the reaction time of the observer (what advantage is there in reacting 29s seconds sooner?).

In the case of something like a stock trading tool, 29s could make a huge difference and it's not practically the same as knowing instantly.