seniorSpring
How does Spring Boot handle request queueing inside embedded Tomcat under load?
Updated May 17, 2026
Short answer
Tomcat queues incoming requests when all worker threads are busy until queue capacity is reached.
Deep explanation
Embedded Tomcat uses a thread pool and accept queue. Requests are accepted by NIO connector and placed in a queue if threads are busy. Once queue is full, new connections are rejected, leading to connection timeouts or 503 errors.
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