4 min read
How to choose a timeout for a service call
A timeout decides how long a user waits for a failure. Pick one from latency data, fit it inside the caller's deadline, and leave room for a retry.
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Articles on system design, reliability and engineering judgment, for software engineers from their first job to senior.
4 min read
Read-your-writes: why users see old data after saving, and four ways to fix it
Replication lag makes users see their own changes vanish. What read-your-writes means, four ways to provide it, and what each one costs.
5 min read
Retries, backpressure and load shedding: what to do when a queue backs up
When work arrives faster than you can finish it, you can slow the sender, drop work, or let it wait. How to choose, and how retries make it worse.
4 min read
How to talk about trade-offs in a system design interview
Most system design answers name trade-offs without pricing them. How to state what each decision buys, what it costs, and when you would change it.