What is Rate Limiting Strategies?
Turkish: Rate Limit Stratejileri
Rate limiting strategies balance API request speed with fixed window, sliding window, leaky bucket, or token bucket algorithms.
What are Rate Limiting Strategies?
Rate limiting strategies are algorithms used to measure API request speed and decide whether to allow, delay, reject, or prioritize traffic when limits are reached. They protect the system from overload and help enforce fair use between customers.
There is no single best algorithm. Burst behavior, distributed architecture, customer plans, real-time needs, and expensive endpoints all affect the right choice.
Common Algorithms
- Fixed window: Counts requests in a defined time window. It is simple, but can allow bursts at window boundaries.
- Sliding window: Calculates usage over the last N seconds for a smoother limit.
- Token bucket: Refills tokens at a steady rate; allows short bursts while controlling long-term average use.
- Leaky bucket: Processes requests at a fixed pace and smooths bursts through a queue.
- Concurrency limit: Restricts the number of in-flight requests, which matters for slow endpoints.
Implementation Notes
Rate limiting is commonly enforced in an API Gateway, reverse proxy, or application layer. In distributed systems, centralized counters, atomic operations, and regional consistency need careful design.
Clients should receive clear 429 Too Many Requests, Retry-After, and remaining-limit headers. Well-behaved integrations can then slow down instead of creating repeated failures.