Architecture
Fault Tolerance
Fault tolerance is a system's ability to keep operating — or degrade gracefully — when individual components fail.
Diagram
Payment Service DOWN
│
▼
Circuit Breaker OPEN ──▶ Return fallback: "Payment unavailable, try later"
(App stays online, users aren't blocked)In Depth
Fault tolerance means a system continues to function (fully or in degraded mode) when parts of it fail — a database timeout, a crashed microservice, or a network partition.
Related Terms