Glossary term
What is Timeout? Meaning for developers
In System Design
Maximum time to wait for a response. Example: Give up on a call after 500 ms.
Learn it properly · System DesignLesson 41: Timeouts, Retries & Backoff with JitterOne slow dependency with no timeout, plus clients that retry instantly, can take down an entire site. How to set timeouts from real latency, propagate deadlines, retry only what's safe, avoid retry amplification, and why backoff needs jitter.In Observability & SRE
A time limit on a call: if the answer does not arrive in time, you stop waiting and treat it as a failure.
Learn it properly · Observability & SRELesson 7: Reliability Patterns: Timeouts, Retries, Circuit Breakers and Graceful DegradationFailure modes, timeouts and retries with backoff, circuit breakers, bulkheads, load shedding, tested with fault injection.