The below statement from Cassandra documentation is the reason for my doubt.
For example, if using a write consistency level of QUORUM with a replication factor of 3
I got it. Cassandra will not even attempt to write if it knows that consistency cannot be met. If consistency CAN be met, but does not have enough replicas to satisfy replication factor, then Cassandra would write to currently available replicas and gives a success message. Later when the replica is up again, it will write to other replica.
For e.g. If Replication factor is 3 , 1 of 3 nodes are down, then if I write with a Consistency of 2, the write will succeed. But if Replication factor is 2 and 1 of 2 nodes are down , then if I write with a Consistency of 2, Cassandra will not even write to that single node which is available.
What is mentioned in the documentation is a case where while write was initiated when the consistency can be met. But in between, one node went down and couldn't complete the write, whereas write succeeded in other node. Since consistency cannot be met, client would get a failure message. The record which was written to a single node would be removed later during node repair or compaction.