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Rate Limiting: Token Bucket, Sliding Window & Leaky Bucket

Medium

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Rate limiting: protecting APIs from abuse and overload

Rate limiting prevents any single client from overwhelming an API — whether from abuse, bugs, or misconfigured load tests. The algorithm choice matters: different algorithms handle bursting differently and have different accuracy-cost tradeoffs.

A good rate limiter is invisible to well-behaved clients and quickly visible to misbehaving ones — with informative responses that allow clients to back off gracefully.

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