[role="xpack"]
[[traces]]
=== Traces overview

TIP: Traces link together related transactions to show an end-to-end performance of how a request was served
and which services were part of it.
In addition to the Traces overview, you can view your application traces in the <<spans,trace sample timeline waterfall>>.

The *Traces* overview displays the entry transaction for all traces in your application.
If you're using <<distributed-tracing>>, this view is key to finding the critical paths within your application.
Transactions with the same name are grouped together and only shown once in this table.

By default, transactions are sorted by _Impact_.
Impact helps show the most used and slowest endpoints in your service--in other words,
it's the collective amount of pain a specific endpoint is causing your users.
If there's a particular endpoint you're worried about, you can click on it to view the <<transaction-details, transaction details>>.

[role="screenshot"]
image::apm/images/apm-traces.png[Example view of the Traces overview in APM app in Kibana]
