Readiness Probe
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
A readiness probe tells Kubernetes 'I'm ready to receive traffic.' Even if your app is running, it might still be loading data, warming caches, or connecting to databases. The readiness probe says 'don't send me requests yet, I'm not ready.' Once it passes, traffic flows in.
Real Talk
A readiness probe is a Kubernetes health check that determines if a pod is ready to accept traffic. Unlike liveness probes, a failed readiness probe doesn't restart the pod — it removes it from service endpoints. This prevents traffic from reaching pods that are starting up, overloaded, or temporarily unable to serve requests.
When You'll Hear This
"The readiness probe waits for the cache to warm up before accepting traffic." / "Set the readiness probe to check database connectivity, not just HTTP 200."
Related Terms
Health Endpoint
A health endpoint is a simple URL (usually /health or /healthz) that returns 'I'm alive and everything's fine' or 'something's broken.
Kubernetes
Kubernetes is a robot manager for your containers.
Liveness Probe
A liveness probe is Kubernetes repeatedly poking your app and asking 'are you still alive?
Startup Probe
A startup probe gives slow-starting apps time to boot without Kubernetes killing them. Some apps need 60 seconds to load ML models or warm caches.