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How do microservices handle rate limiting and throttling?

Senior Microservices
Quick Answer Rate limiting at service level: token bucket or fixed window algorithms in middleware. At API gateway: centralized rate limiting with shared state in Redis. Throttling is softer - slow down requests instead of rejecting. Per-user, per-IP, or per-API-key limits. Return 429 with Retry-After header. Use sliding window for smoother limits without burst at window boundaries.

Answer

Protect services from overload using rate limits.
Can be implemented at API Gateway or per-service level.
Patterns: Token bucket, leaky bucket.
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Source: SugharaIQ

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