Load Shedding

Definitions

1. The deliberate rejection of a portion of incoming requests when a system is under extreme load, preserving capacity to successfully serve the remaining traffic rather than failing for everyone.

   In plain English: When a system is overloaded, it intentionally turns away some users so the rest can still be served properly — like a bouncer limiting how many people can enter a packed venue.

   Example: "During the flash sale, our load shedding kicked in and started returning 503s to non-authenticated users so that customers with items in their carts could still check out."

Related Terms

• Rate Limiting
• backpressure
• Thundering Herd
• Deflection