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Circuit Breaker Pattern

Description

The Circuit Breaker Pattern is a resilience design pattern that prevents a system from performing operations likely to fail. It works similarly to an electrical circuit breaker: when failures reach a certain threshold, the circuit “opens” and subsequent requests are rejected, allowing the system to recover gracefully.

How It Works

  1. Closed State: The system operates normally, and requests are passed through.
  2. Open State: After detecting repeated failures, the circuit breaker trips, and further requests are rejected.
  3. Half-Open State: The system periodically allows some requests to test if the service has recovered.

Advantages

  • Failure Isolation: Prevents cascading failures.
  • Improved Stability: Allows the failing component to recover without overwhelming it.

Challenges

  • Configuration: Setting thresholds and timeout values requires careful tuning.
  • Fallback Logic: Needs proper implementation for degraded behavior.

Example Use Case

  • A microservice calls an external payment gateway.
  • If the payment gateway fails repeatedly, the circuit breaker opens and stops retrying requests, preventing system overload.