API Rate Limit

ELI5 — The Vibe Check

API Rate Limiting is the velvet rope of the internet — it controls how many requests you can make in a given time period. It's like a bouncer saying 'you've had enough requests for now, come back in a minute.' Without it, one enthusiastic user (or a bot) could overwhelm your server faster than a Black Friday sale crashes a retail website.

Real Talk

API rate limiting restricts the number of requests a client can make within a time window. Common algorithms include token bucket, sliding window, and fixed window. Rate limits are communicated via HTTP headers (X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, Retry-After) and return 429 Too Many Requests when exceeded.

When You'll Hear This

"Our API allows 100 requests per minute per API key — after that, you get a 429." / "Implement rate limiting before launch, not after a DDoS takes your service down."