Designing for Idempotency in retries.
Updated Apr 28, 2026
Short answer
Ensuring that multiple identical requests from a client result in the same state on the server.
Deep explanation
Intermediate reliability engineering involves handling distributed failures and defining metrics. Ensuring that multiple identical requests from a client result in the same state on the server.
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?