Member-only story
Circuit Breaker Design Pattern in Microservices: A Simple Guide
In today’s world of microservices, applications are split into many small parts that talk to each other. But what happens when one of these parts fails? How do we stop this failure from spreading to the whole system? The answer is the Circuit Breaker design pattern.
What is the Circuit Breaker Pattern?
The Circuit Breaker pattern works just like the electrical circuit breaker in your home. When there’s a problem with electricity, the circuit breaker trips to prevent damage. Similarly, in software, a circuit breaker stops calls to a failing service to prevent bigger problems.
Think of it this way: You’re trying to turn on a light in your home, but there’s a problem with the wiring. Instead of causing a fire, the circuit breaker cuts off power. In software, when a service keeps failing, the circuit breaker stops other services from calling it, preventing a system-wide failure.
Why Do We Need Circuit Breakers?
Imagine you have an online store with different services — one for user accounts, one for product listings, and one for payments. If the payment service is down, users trying to check out will have to wait for a timeout, which might take many seconds. During this time, your application…