How do you short-circuit the pipeline?

Short answer: Simply don’t call await next() in a middleware: if (!context.User.Identity.IsAuthenticated)

Example code

{
context.Response.StatusCode = 401;
return; // Short-circuits
}
await next(); // only called if authenticated

Real-world example (ShopNest)

ShopNest pipeline order matters: exception handling → HTTPS → auth → authorization → endpoints. Auth must run before protected APIs.

Say this in the interview

1. Define — one clear sentence (the short answer above).
2. Example — relate it to a project like ShopNest or your real work.
3. Trade-off — when you would not use it.