Glossary coding Term Page
Backoff
Progressively increase retry delays, often with exponential backoff and jitter, to prevent hammering services.
Core Idea
Backoff raises the wait time between retries each time a call fails, creating a gentle rhythm instead of hammering the API. Most implementations increase delays exponentially and add jitter so many clients do not retry in lockstep.
Why It Matters Here
Mathbong’s error-state lessons pair backoff with clear messaging so users know a retry is coming while the server gets breathing room. Implementations often schedule retries inside helpers that already manage error states, so this term anchors that timing logic for the rest of the series.