What is the Circuit Breaker Pattern?
Updated Apr 28, 2026
Short answer
A design pattern used to detect failures and encapsulate the logic of preventing a failure from constantly recurring.
Deep explanation
Intermediate reliability engineering involves handling distributed failures and defining metrics. A design pattern used to detect failures and encapsulate the logic of preventing a failure from constantly recurring.
Real-world example
A mobile app retrying to connect to a server when the signal is weak.
Common mistakes
- Retrying indefinitely without a cap, which can crash the server when it comes back up.
Follow-up questions
- What are the three states of a Circuit Breaker?