Tutorials Design Patterns in C#
Rate Limiting Pattern — Complete Guide
Rate Limiting Pattern — Complete Guide: free step-by-step lesson with examples, common mistakes, and interview tips — part of Design Patterns in C# on Toolliyo Academy.
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Design Patterns in C# · Lesson 55 of 69
Rate Limiting Pattern
GoF Core ✓ → Enterprise ✓ → Cloud & Craft
Cloud & Craft · 3 — Microservices & interviews · ~10 min · Module 6: Microservices & Cloud Patterns
What is this?
Rate limiting caps requests per key (user/IP/api-key) per window to protect capacity and blunt abuse.
Why should you care?
One buggy ShopNest script can exhaust checkout for everyone.
See it live — copy this example
Paste into a C# console or class library project and run dotnet run.
// Fixed window pseudo
// key=user:42 window=1m limit=100
Console.WriteLine("INCR rate:user:42");
Console.WriteLine("if count>100 -> 429 Retry-After");What happened?
- Store counters in Redis for multi-node gateways.
- Stricter limits on /pay.
- Token buckets allow bursts.
Practice next
- Limit ShopNest /pay tighter than /search.
- Return 429 with Retry-After.
- Key by userId when authenticated.
- Token bucket for autocomplete.
- Ban keys exceeding 10×.
Remember
Cap shared capacity. Per-route policies. Multi-node counters.
ShopNest gateway rate limits
/pay limited per user.
Outcome: Card-testing bots get 429.
Interview prep for this lesson
Practice these questions aloud after reading—each links to a full structured answer.
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