Load Shedding
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
Load shedding is intentionally dropping some requests when your server is overwhelmed so it can keep serving the rest. It's like a nightclub at max capacity — the bouncer turns people away so the people inside can still have a good time. Better to reject some requests than crash for everyone.
Real Talk
Load shedding is a reliability pattern where a server intentionally rejects incoming requests when it detects it's approaching capacity limits. Unlike rate limiting (which limits per-client), load shedding protects the server itself by monitoring CPU, memory, queue depth, or response latency. Rejected requests receive 503 Service Unavailable, signaling clients to retry later.
When You'll Hear This
"Load shedding kicked in during the Black Friday spike and kept the site up." / "We shed low-priority requests first to protect checkout and payment flows."
Related Terms
Backpressure
Backpressure is when a slow consumer tells a fast producer to chill out.
Circuit Breaker
Circuit Breaker is like the electrical circuit breaker in your house.
Graceful Degradation
Graceful degradation means your app keeps working with reduced functionality when something breaks. Recommendation engine down? Show popular items instead.
Rate Limiting
Rate limiting is like a bouncer who says 'you can come in 100 times per hour, then you wait.