When should I use circuit breaker patterns?

What are circuit breaker patterns and when should I use them?

Circuit breaker patterns are used to prevent an application from repeatedly trying to execute an operation that's likely to fail. You should use them when you have external services that may become unavailable, to avoid cascading failures.

Can you give me an example of a situation where a circuit breaker pattern would be useful?

Sure! If your application relies on a third-party API for payment processing, and that API is down, a circuit breaker can stop your app from making repeated requests, allowing it to recover gracefully.

How do I implement a circuit breaker pattern in my code?

You can implement a circuit breaker using libraries like Hystrix in Java or Resilience4j. They provide built-in support for managing the state of the circuit and handling failures.

What are the potential downsides of using circuit breaker patterns?

One downside is that if not configured properly, a circuit breaker can lead to unnecessary downtime or prevent legitimate requests from being processed. It's important to set the thresholds wisely.