API Gateway Throttling

5 minutes 5 Questions

API Gateway Throttling is a key concept in Amazon API Gateway that helps to manage the rate and capacity of API requests to ensure the stability and availability of backend services. API Gateway Throttling can be set up with default or custom settings, such as request rates and burst capacity, allowing for better control over the flow of API calls. Users can configure API Gateway Throttling to handle varying levels of traffic, prevent abuse, or ensure that resources are fairly shared among different clients. This feature helps in maintaining a consistent and efficient performance for both API clients and backend systems.

Guide: Understanding API Gateway Throttling for AWS Solution Architect Examination

API Gateway Throttling is a critical concept for anyone preparing for the AWS Solution Architect examination.

What is API Gateway Throttling?
API Gateway Throttling is a feature of Amazon API Gateway that helps to optimize the performance of the API by controlling the rate of API calls. The main purpose of this feature is to prevent the API from being overwhelmed by too many requests at once.

Why is API Gateway Throttling important?
Throttling is vital as it helps maintain optimal performance and prevents service outage due to an overflow of requests. It ensures the system remains available and functional even during peak usage or under heavy traffic.

How does API Gateway Throttling work?
It works by putting a limit on the number of API calls a client can make within a specified time frame. If the number of requests exceeds this set limit, the API Gateway will start rejecting the extra requests with a 429 error message ('Too Many Requests').

Exam Tips: Answering Questions on API Gateway Throttling:
1. Remember the purpose: Questions may be asked about API Gateway's throttling purpose. The ability to control the rate of API calls to prevent service overrun is key.
2. Understand the details: It is necessary to understand the intricacies of throttling mechanism, such as the error messages (429 error message for exceeding the request limit) and the configurable upper limit on the API calls.
3. Practical application: Knowing how to use API Gateway Throttling in a real scenario can help answer application-based questions. Understanding how to apply rate limit settings to different stages and methods in an API gateway can be beneficial.

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Question 1

An e-commerce web application is using API Gateway for their APIs. During a major sale, the web application experiences heavy traffic, causing API Gateway to exceed the default account-level throttling limits. What should be the best solution?

Enable API Gateway compression. Use a cache to increase API Gateway throughput. Request an API Gateway limit increase for the account. Increase the Lambda function’s memory allocation.

Correct Answer: Request an API Gateway limit increase for the account.

The best solution would be to request an API Gateway limit increase for the account to handle the increased traffic. Using caching, enabling compression, increasing Lambda function memory, or VPC peering would not mitigate exceeding account-level throttling limits. Switching to an Application Load Balancer would not address throttling issues directly.

Question 2

A company has implemented a burst limit and a rate limit on their APIs in API Gateway. In which order are these limits applied?

Burst limit first, then rate limit. Both are applied simultaneously. Rate limit first, then burst limit. Either rate limit or burst limit, depending on traffic.

Correct Answer: Rate limit first, then burst limit.

When using API Gateway, rate limits are applied first, followed by burst limits. Applying them simultaneously, in a specific order depending on traffic, method types or only allowing one limit at a time are not valid options for API Gateway throttling mechanism.

Question 3

A gaming website runs on AWS and is using API Gateway to serve game APIs. Due to the high popularity, the backend was unable to process all requests from clients. What should be the best solution to implement method-level throttling?

Increase the backend infrastructure capacity. Set custom method-level request throttling via the API Gateway console or API. Switch to using S3 static website for serving content. Implement a custom Lambda function to handle throttling.

Correct Answer: Set custom method-level request throttling via the API Gateway console or API.

Setting custom method-level request throttling within API Gateway allows you to reduce the number of requests to specific methods for better traffic management. Increasing backend capacity or modifying EC2 scaling parameters may temporarily alleviate traffic issues but won't configure throttling. S3 static websites, custom Lambda functions or multi-region access points are unrelated to method-level throttling in API Gateway.

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