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Cloud Computing · Intermediate

Queue-Based Load Leveling

Cloud design pattern that places a queue between a task and a service to smooth intermittent heavy loads.

Definition

By buffering requests in a queue, the consuming service processes work at its own steady rate, preventing overload and allowing independent scaling of consumers based on queue depth. It is documented in the Azure Architecture Center and widely applied with SQS, Service Bus, Queue Storage and Pub/Sub.

Example

Ticket purchase requests are queued, and workers scale on queue length rather than crashing under spikes.

Exam tip

Scaling on queue depth (backlog per instance) is the recommended metric for queue workers.

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