System design patterns
Sharding, load balancing, CAP tradeoffs, and scaling patterns — interview and production ready.
How to Limit Concurrent Requests with a Semaphore in Python
Use threading.Semaphore with a ThreadPoolExecutor to cap how many worker threads run simultaneously, preventing resource overload.
import threading
import time
from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor
def worker(name, semaphore, results):
with semaphore:
results.append(f"start {name}")
time.sleep(0.5) # simulate async work
results.append(f"done {name}")
def main():
sem = threading.Semaphore(2) # max 2 …
Implement Bulkhead Thread Pool Isolation in Python
Create isolated thread pools with a bulkhead pattern to protect different services from cascading failures.
import threading
import time
import random
from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor
class Bulkhead:
"""Simple bulkhead isolation: separate thread pools for different tasks."""
def __init__(self, max_workers):
self.executor = ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=max_workers)
self.active = …
Object Pool Pattern for Database Connections in Python
Implements a reusable connection pool with acquire/release and context manager support, mocking database connections with idle reuse and exhaustion handling.
import time
from contextlib import contextmanager
from collections import deque
class ConnectionPool:
def __init__(self, size=3, max_idle=5):
self._idle = deque(maxlen=max_idle)
self._active = set()
self.size = size
def _create(self):
return {"created_at": time.time(), "queri…
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