Glossary infra Term Page
Health Check
An automated probe that checks whether a service is really ready to serve requests
Core Idea
A health check is the recurring probe used to confirm that a service is alive and can really handle requests. It goes beyond asking whether a process is merely running and instead checks whether the application is actually ready to do useful work.
Why It Matters Here
Mathbong uses health checks in Docker HEALTHCHECK, Compose operations, and deployment-readiness discussions. The key distinction is between "the process exists" and "the service is truly healthy enough to receive traffic."