They should be empty to reach absolute minimal latency (e.g. the only latency is the time it takes to process the task, which you could call 0 latency). Differe

They should be empty to reach absolute minimal latency (e.g. the only latency is the time it takes to process the task, which you could call 0 latency). Different services have different latency targets. The right statement is not "they should be empty" but "they should be under the target latency", which might be 0 (then "the queues should be empty"), or might be some other target (then empty means overprovisioned resources). Everyone in this thread seem to be talking over each other because they imagine vastly different services (e.g. shipping company vs hospital emergency rooms).