# Worker

A process on a compute node that executes tasks. Worker count, not node count, is what determines how many tasks run at once.

Source: https://university.eugo.io/glossary/worker

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Worker count rather than node count is what determines how many tasks run at once, which is why a cluster can be fully allocated and still underused if the work is not partitioned finely enough.

## Related terms

- [Compute node](https://university.eugo.io/glossary/compute-node) — A machine in a cluster that executes tasks. Compute nodes do the work; the head node coordinates it.
- [Task](https://university.eugo.io/glossary/task) — One unit of distributed work: a single call to a function decorated with the distribute decorator. Tasks are stateless, so each call starts fresh.
- [Scheduler](https://university.eugo.io/glossary/scheduler) — The component on the head node that decides which compute node runs each task, honoring the resources that task requested.