Mastering Circuit Breakers for Interviews: A Must-Know System Design Concept

Introduction:

In high-stakes system design interviews, understanding circuit breakers can set you apart. Circuit breakers, a critical resilience pattern, protect systems from cascading failures by monitoring and controlling failing operations. This blog demystifies circuit breakers, showcases their real-world relevance, and equips you with the knowledge to confidently discuss them in interviews.

1. What Are Circuit Breakers?

Circuit breakers are a software design pattern used in distributed systems to prevent the failure of one service from affecting others. They act as a safety valve, halting requests to a failing service and allowing time for recovery.

Key Features:

• Detects and stops repeated failures.
• Prevents system-wide degradation.
• Enables graceful degradation of services.

2. How Circuit Breakers Work

Circuit breakers operate in three states:

1. Closed: Requests flow normally.
2. Open: Stops all requests to a failing service.
3. Half-Open: Allows limited requests to test recovery.