Lesson 4.2
Timeouts, retries, and circuit breakers
A dependency that hangs is worse than one that fails. Timeouts convert hanging into failing, and circuit breakers stop failure spreading.
Taught byTomas BergPython · pandas · System design · Distributed systems
Overview
A dependency that hangs is worse than one that fails. Timeouts convert hanging into failing, and circuit breakers stop failure spreading.
What this lesson covers
- Set timeouts on every outbound call
- Break the circuit when a dependency is clearly down
- Degrade gracefully instead of cascading
This lesson sits in Reliability and Operations, part of System Design Foundations. It assumes what came before it and leads directly into the next lesson in the module.
In this lesson you will:
- Set timeouts on every outbound call
- Break the circuit when a dependency is clearly down
- Degrade gracefully instead of cascading