Answer
A circuit breaker prevents repeated calls to a failing service, avoiding cascading failures. A fallback mechanism provides a default response when a service is unavailable. Tools include Hystrix and Resilience4j.
Quick Answer
Circuit breaker monitors failure rate to a service. When failures exceed threshold it opens - calls return a fallback immediately without hitting the failing service. Fallback could be a cached response, default value, or error message. This prevents your service from wasting threads waiting on a dead service and stops failures from cascading upstream.
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SugharaIQ Editorial Team
Verified Answer
This answer has been peer-reviewed by industry experts holding senior engineering roles to ensure technical accuracy and relevance for modern interview standards.
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Source: SugharaIQ