ASP.NET Core Web API Interview Question #145

What is the circuit breaker pattern?

Error Handling, Logging, Caching, Rate Limiting, CORS & Reliability Senior Advanced

Quick Interview Answer

A circuit breaker temporarily stops calls to a dependency after repeated failures. This prevents every incoming request from continuing to wait on a dependency that is already known to be unhealthy.

Detailed Explanation

A circuit breaker temporarily stops calls to a dependency after repeated failures. This prevents every incoming request from continuing to wait on a dependency that is already known to be unhealthy.

After a defined period, the breaker can allow trial calls to determine whether the dependency has recovered. It is commonly combined with timeouts and carefully designed retries.

Code Example

// Closed: calls flow normally.
// Open: calls fail fast.
// Half-open: limited trial calls test recovery.

// Configure through the resilience strategy used
// by the application's HTTP client stack.