System Design

Microservices Resilience: The Circuit Breaker

System Design diagram · made in Skemio

State transition diagram of a microservice circuit breaker showing Closed, Open, and Half-Open states with fallbacks protecting downstream services.
State transition diagram of a microservice circuit breaker showing Closed, Open, and Half-Open states with fallbacks protecting downstream services.
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What it shows

  • Closed state routes calls normally while tracking rolling error rates.
  • Open state fails fast immediately to shield downstream failing services.
  • Half-Open state tests probe requests to safely verify downstream recovery.

The takeaway

Fail fast with circuit breakers to prevent local latency from cascading into total outages.

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