Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method and an apparatus for processing data. The method can include: determining, in response to receiving an access request, a time interval between the access request and a last access request as a first time interval; acquiring a preset complete binary tree from a management server end, a value of a non-leaf node of the complete binary tree being related to a time interval of latest two access requests received by a metadata server, a leaf node being used to represent a virtual node in a distributed system, and the virtual node corresponding to the metadata server; selecting a target path from the complete binary tree according to the first time interval; and sending the access request and the target path to a metadata server corresponding to a leaf node of the target path.