Definition
Restricting how many requests a user or service can make in a given timeframe, like a bouncer for your API. It prevents abuse, accidental DDoS-ing, and that one intern's infinite loop from taking down production.
Example Usage
We implemented rate limiting at 100 requests per minute per user after someone's script hit our API 10,000 times in a second.
Origin
Emerged from network traffic management and API design best practices in the 2000s
Fun Fact
Twitter's rate limits are so famously strict that entire applications have been built just to work around them, creating a cottage industry of rate limit optimization consultants.
Source: API design and network traffic management standards
Related Terms
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See “rate limiting” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.
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