? Rate Limiting & Throttling in Django

? Quick Overview

Rate limiting and throttling are essential measures for safeguarding your web application against abuse, excessive usage, or malicious activities. These techniques ensure fair access to resources and help maintain application stability, especially for APIs.

? Key Concepts

• Rate Limiting: Restricts the number of requests allowed within a fixed time window.
• Throttling: Controls request flow by rejecting or delaying excessive requests.
• API Protection: Prevents misuse, spam, and denial-of-service scenarios.

? Syntax & Theory

Django REST Framework (DRF) provides built-in throttling classes like UserRateThrottle and AnonRateThrottle that help enforce request limits effortlessly.

? Code Examples

// Install Django REST Framework
pip install djangorestframework

// Configure throttling settings in Django
REST_FRAMEWORK = {
'DEFAULT_THROTTLE_CLASSES': [
'rest_framework.throttling.UserRateThrottle',
'rest_framework.throttling.AnonRateThrottle',
],
'DEFAULT_THROTTLE_RATES': {
'user': '100/hour',
'anon': '10/minute',
}
}

// Custom throttling class example
from rest_framework.throttling import BaseThrottle

class CustomRateThrottle(BaseThrottle):
def allow_request(self, request, view):
return True

// Apply throttling to an API view
from rest_framework.views import APIView
from rest_framework.response import Response
from rest_framework.throttling import UserRateThrottle

class MyApiView(APIView):
throttle_classes = [UserRateThrottle]

def get(self, request):
return Response({"message": "This is a rate-limited response."})

? Live Output / Explanation

When the request limit is exceeded, Django REST Framework automatically responds with a 429 Too Many Requests status, informing clients to slow down.

? Interactive Concept

Imagine a counter that resets every hour. Each request increases the count. Once the limit is reached, further requests are blocked until the timer resets.

?️ Use Cases

• Protecting public APIs
• Preventing brute-force attacks
• Ensuring fair usage among users
• Reducing server overload