Retry
Automatically re-attempting a failed operation, usually with exponential backoff. Essential for handling transient failures in distributed systems.
What is Retry?
Automatically re-attempting a failed operation, usually with exponential backoff. Essential for handling transient failures in distributed systems.
Retry is a intermediate-level concept that sits in the Microservices Architecture area of system design. Engineers reach for it whenever they need to reason about real-world trade-offs in that space — not just for textbook correctness, but because real production systems at companies like Netflix, Amazon, and Google make these decisions every day.
If you want to go deeper than this definition — with diagrams, code, and a quiz to lock it in — work through the "Retry" lesson linked below. It walks through the why, the mechanism, the trade-offs, and how the giants actually use it in production.
Learn Retry in depth
Full interactive lesson with diagrams, code examples, real-world references, and a quiz.
Open the Retry lessonRelated lessons
Lessons that touch on Retry as part of a larger topic.
Idempotency Keys
Safely retry failed API requests without causing duplicate side effects
intermediate · api design protocols
Exponential Backoff
Instead of hammering a failing service, wait longer between each retry, giving the system time to recover
intermediate · microservices architecture
Jitter
Add randomness to retry timing to prevent the thundering herd, the missing piece of exponential backoff
intermediate · microservices architecture
At-Least-Once Delivery
Never lose a message, but you might see it twice
intermediate · messaging event systems
Poison Message Handling
Detect and isolate messages that crash your consumers, before they crash them forever
intermediate · messaging event systems
See also
Related glossary terms you might want to look up next.
Circuit Breaker
A pattern that stops calling a failing service after repeated failures, preventing cascade failures. Like an electrical circuit breaker that cuts power to prevent fires.
Idempotency
An operation that produces the same result whether you run it once or multiple times. Critical for safe retries in distributed systems.
Bulkhead
A pattern that isolates different parts of a system so a failure in one part doesn't sink the whole ship. Named after the compartments in a ship's hull.