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System design patterns

Sharding, load balancing, CAP tradeoffs, and scaling patterns — interview and production ready.

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System design patterns medium

How to implement stale-while-revalidate caching in Python

A Python cache wrapper that returns a stale cached value with a fallback flag when the upstream fetch fails, using TTL-based freshness checks.

caching ttl resilience
Python
import time
from functools import lru_cache


class CachedService:
    def __init__(self, fetch_func, ttl=5):
        self.fetch_func = fetch_func
        self.ttl = ttl
        self._cache = {}
        self._timestamp = {}

    def get(self, key):
        now = time.time()
        if key in self._cache and now - self…
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