Rate Limiting and Anti-Patterns

Rate limiting is a crucial technique to control the frequency of requests an application receives. Think of it as a bouncer at a club, letting only a certain number of people in at a time.

It protects your APIs and services from:

• Abuse: Preventing malicious attacks like brute-force attempts.
• Overload: Ensuring your servers aren't overwhelmed by too many requests.
• Fair Usage: Distributing access fairly among all users.

When we talk about rate limiting, a few key terms come up:

• Limit: The maximum number of requests allowed.
• Window: The time period over which the limit applies (e.g., 60 seconds).
• Burst: A sudden spike in requests.

Different algorithms exist, like Fixed Window and Sliding Window, each with its own trade-offs.