Jitter
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
Jitter adds randomness to retry delays so all your clients don't retry at the exact same time. If 1,000 requests fail and all retry at exactly 2 seconds, you've just created a thundering herd. Add jitter and they spread out between 1.5 and 2.5 seconds. Problem solved.
Real Talk
Jitter is random variation added to retry delays, cron schedules, or polling intervals to prevent synchronized retries (thundering herd). Full jitter randomizes the entire delay range (0 to max). Equal jitter uses half the calculated delay plus random half. Decorrelated jitter bases each delay on the previous delay with randomization. AWS recommends full jitter for most use cases.
When You'll Hear This
"Add full jitter to the backoff — without it, all 10,000 clients retry at the same millisecond." / "Jitter turns a synchronized retry storm into a gentle drizzle."
Related Terms
Exponential Backoff
Exponential backoff doubles the wait time between each retry. Wait 1s, then 2s, then 4s, then 8s.
Retry with Backoff
Retry with backoff means trying again when something fails, but waiting longer between each attempt. First retry: wait 1 second. Second: 2 seconds.