The sale opened. The orders vanished.

Frequently asked questions

Why does a flash sale overwhelm an order API with no queue in front of it?

Without a queue, the API has to process orders at exactly the rate they arrive — a sudden spike in arrival rate becomes a spike in required processing rate, and the API falls over trying to keep up in real time.

How does a queue fix that without you writing a retry loop?

It decouples arrival from processing — orders land on the queue as fast as they come in, and workers pull from it at whatever rate they can sustain. An order that isn't completed simply stays available for redelivery, with no custom retry logic needed.

Read deeper on Azure

Twenty seconds gets the shape of an idea across. These go into how it behaves in production.

• AI Bot Attacks on a Mobile App Login, and How Azure Stops Them

  A script tries 8,000 passwords a minute against your login API at 3am. Rate limiting, smart lockout and Defender for Cloud make speed the losing move.

• Azure Key Vault Explained: The One Secret Tutorials Never Remove

  Moving every secret into Key Vault leaves exactly one behind: the credential that opens the vault. A managed identity is what removes it.

• How to Secure a Mobile API on Azure in Five Steps, in the Right Order

  HTTPS only, authentication, authorization, secrets and monitoring: five steps to secure a mobile API on Azure, and why the order carries most of the value.