diff --git a/src/main.cpp b/src/main.cpp
index a4269a0..3f3755b 100644
--- a/src/main.cpp
+++ b/src/main.cpp
@@ -84,6 +84,13 @@ int getListenFd(const char *node, const char *service) {
       continue; // Try next address
     }
 
+    // Enable TCP_NODELAY for low latency (disable Nagle's algorithm)
+    if (setsockopt(sfd, IPPROTO_TCP, TCP_NODELAY, &val, sizeof(val)) == -1) {
+      perror("setsockopt TCP_NODELAY");
+      close(sfd);
+      continue; // Try next address
+    }
+
     // Set socket to non-blocking for graceful shutdown
     int flags = fcntl(sfd, F_GETFL, 0);
     if (flags == -1) {
@@ -482,9 +489,10 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
     abort();
   }
 
-  // Add listen socket to accept epoll
+  // Add listen socket to accept epoll with EPOLLEXCLUSIVE for better load
+  // balancing
   struct epoll_event listen_event;
-  listen_event.events = EPOLLIN;
+  listen_event.events = EPOLLIN | EPOLLEXCLUSIVE;
   listen_event.data.fd = sockfd;
   if (epoll_ctl(accept_epollfd, EPOLL_CTL_ADD, sockfd, &listen_event) == -1) {
     perror("epoll_ctl listen socket");
@@ -545,6 +553,14 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
                 continue;
               }
 
+              // Enable keepalive to detect dead connections
+              int keepalive = 1;
+              if (setsockopt(fd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_KEEPALIVE, &keepalive,
+                             sizeof(keepalive)) == -1) {
+                perror("setsockopt SO_KEEPALIVE");
+                // Continue anyway - not critical
+              }
+
               auto conn = std::make_unique<Connection>(
                   addr, fd,
                   connectionId.fetch_add(1, std::memory_order_relaxed));