This application discloses a fault detection method, where the method is applied to a distributed node cluster, the node cluster includes a plurality of nodes, the method is performed by any one of the plurality of nodes, the any one node is a first node, and the method includes: determining, by the first node, whether a trigger condition for health assessment is met; and when the trigger condition for health assessment is met, separately assessing, by the first node, health of other nodes in the node cluster based on heartbeat delay data between the first node and the other nodes in the node cluster, and obtaining assessment results of the health of the other nodes in the node cluster.