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Distributed Rate Limiter (Redis + Token Bucket)

Build a Redis-backed distributed rate limiter using token bucket algorithm. Production-grade, with abuse defenses and observability.

Go or RustRedisDocker

About this project

Rate limiting is a classic senior interview topic. This project moves beyond the in-memory toy: a distributed rate limiter on Redis, supporting token bucket and sliding window, with per-user and per-IP limits, abuse detection (consecutive violators), and observability. Ship as a library with benchmarks: how many RPS can your limiter sustain?

Why build this in 2026?

AI APIs have made rate-limiting business-critical (LLM costs are real). Senior engineers who can build cost-aware limiters are highly valued.

What you'll ship

  • GitHub repo with benchmarks documented
Loadtest results (k6 or Locust)
Writeup comparing token bucket vs sliding window trade-offs

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Skills you'll practice

redisdistributed systemssystem design