A developer checks the performance of a web application.

Rate limiting is a technique to control the rate of incoming and outgoing traffic to or from a network. If rate limiting is not implemented, excessive API requests can overwhelm the server, causing long response times and abandoned requests.

Abandoned Requests: When a server is overwhelmed with too many requests, it may not process them all, leading to abandoned requests.

Long Response Times: Without rate limiting, the server might be handling more requests than it can efficiently process, resulting in delayed responses.

Solution: Implementing rate limiting ensures that the server processes requests at a manageable rate, improving performance and reliability.

References:

Rate Limiting and API Performance: Understanding Rate Limiting