Formulating a strategy for financial API rate limiting protection involves balancing security, performance, and user experience. Here’s a structured approach:
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Define Rate Limits Based on Use Cases:
- Public APIs: Set conservative limits (e.g., 100 requests/minute per IP) to prevent abuse.
- Partner APIs: Allow higher limits (e.g., 1,000 requests/minute) with authentication.
- Internal APIs: Use dynamic limits tied to business needs.
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Implement Multi-Layered Protection:
- IP-Based Throttling: Block or slow down excessive requests from a single IP.
- User/Account-Level Limits: Restrict requests per user or account (e.g., 500 requests/hour).
- Endpoint-Specific Rules: Apply stricter limits to sensitive endpoints (e.g., payment processing).
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Use Adaptive Rate Limiting:
- Adjust limits dynamically based on traffic patterns, time of day, or system load. For example, increase limits during peak hours but enforce stricter rules during low-traffic periods.
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Monitor and Log Exceedances:
- Track rate limit violations and log details (IP, user, endpoint) for analysis. Use this data to refine limits.
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Graceful Degradation:
- Instead of abrupt rejections, return HTTP 429 (Too Many Requests) with a
Retry-After header to guide clients.
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Leverage Cloud Services for Scalability:
- Use Tencent Cloud API Gateway to enforce rate limits, monitor traffic, and integrate with Tencent Cloud CLS (Cloud Log Service) for logging and analysis.
Example:
A fintech company offering payment APIs might set:
- 100 requests/minute per IP for public users.
- 1,000 requests/minute per partner account with OAuth 2.0 authentication.
- Dynamic scaling for internal batch processing during end-of-day settlements.
Tencent Cloud Recommendation:
Deploy Tencent Cloud API Gateway to configure rate limits, enable Tencent Cloud WAF for DDoS protection, and use Tencent Cloud Monitor to track API performance and anomalies.