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date:: [[2024-01-09]]
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# [[Exponential backoff]]
Exponential backoff is a control mechanism in software networks that involves instituting a variable delay between the time a service gets a system timeout or a failed response and the time it tries again. This delay increases exponentially after each failure, staggering the requests and thus preventing [[Cascading Failures]] and [[Retry storm]]s.
It is an implementation of the [[Circuit breaker pattern]].