Circular Dependency

Noun · Development

Definitions

  1. A dependency cycle in which two or more modules, packages, or services depend on each other directly or indirectly. Circular dependencies make systems harder to initialize, test, refactor, and reason about because responsibilities and load order become entangled.

    In plain English: A situation where components depend on each other in a loop.

    Example: "The build broke after the refactor introduced a circular dependency between the auth package and the shared HTTP client module."

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