Implementing Rate Limiting and Throttling

Tutorial 2 of 5

1. Introduction

1.1 Brief explanation of the tutorial's goal

In this tutorial, our goal is to introduce you to the concept of rate limiting and throttling. We aim to provide you with a clear understanding of how these techniques can be implemented to protect your server from being overwhelmed by too many requests.

1.2 What the user will learn

By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to understand what rate limiting and throttling are, their importance, and how to implement them in your API.

1.3 Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of HTTP protocols, RESTful APIs, JavaScript, and Node.js is required.

2. Step-by-Step Guide

2.1 Detailed explanation of concepts

Rate limiting is a technique for limiting network traffic. It sets a limit on how many requests a client can make to an API within a certain time period.

Throttling, on the other hand, is a process that manages the rate of requests. It allows you to control the number of requests a client (or group of clients) can make during a session.

2.2 Clear examples with comments

We will be using the Express Rate Limit package for this tutorial. You can install it using npm:

npm install express-rate-limit

2.3 Best practices and tips

Always set a reasonable limit that doesn't affect the user experience.
Use different rate limits for different routes.
Use a higher limit for authenticated routes and a lower one for public routes.

3. Code Examples

3.1 Code Example 1

// Importing the necessary libraries
const express = require('express');
const rateLimit = require("express-rate-limit");

// Initiating the app
const app = express();

// Applying rate limit to all requests
const limiter = rateLimit({
  windowMs: 15 * 60 * 1000, // 15 minutes
  max: 100 // limit each IP to 100 requests per windowMs
});

app.use(limiter);

// A sample route
app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  res.send('Welcome to the homepage!');
});

// Starting the server
app.listen(3000);

In this code, we use the express-rate-limit package to limit each IP to 100 requests per 15 minutes. After the limit is reached, the client receives a 429 response.

3.2 Code Example 2

// Applying different rate limits to different routes
const rateLimit = require("express-rate-limit");

// A limiter for login attempts
const loginLimiter = rateLimit({
  windowMs: 60 * 60 * 1000, // 1 hour
  max: 5, // limit each IP to 5 requests per windowMs
  message: "Too many accounts created from this IP, please try again after an hour"
});

app.post('/login', loginLimiter, (req, res) => {
  // login handler
});

In this code, we have a different rate limit for the login route. We limit each IP to 5 login attempts per hour. If exceeded, a custom message is sent to the client.

4. Summary

4.1 Key points covered

We learned about rate limiting and throttling.
We learned how to use the express-rate-limit package to implement rate limiting and throttling in our API.

4.2 Next steps for learning

You should now explore more about different rate-limiting strategies like leaky bucket and token bucket. Also, learn about how to implement rate limiting and throttling at a more granular level, such as per user, per device, etc.

4.3 Additional resources

5. Practice Exercises

5.1 Exercise 1

Create a rate limiter that allows only 10 requests per minute for a registration route.

5.2 Solution 1

const registerLimiter = rateLimit({
  windowMs: 60 * 1000, // 1 minute
  max: 10, // limit each IP to 10 requests per windowMs
  message: "Too many registration attempts from this IP, please try again after a minute"
});

app.post('/register', registerLimiter, (req, res) => {
  // registration handler
});

5.3 Exercise 2

Implement rate limiting in an existing API. The rate limit should be 500 requests per day.

5.4 Solution 2

const dailyLimiter = rateLimit({
  windowMs: 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000, // 24 hours
  max: 500, // limit each IP to 500 requests per windowMs
  message: "You have exceeded the 500 requests in 24 hrs limit!"
});

app.use(dailyLimiter);

This limiter will be applied to all routes in your API. If you want to apply it to specific routes, just add it as a middleware to those routes.

5.5 Tips for further practice

Try implementing rate limiting with different packages or even without any packages.
Try implementing more advanced rate limiting strategies.
Implement rate limiting in a real-world project.