Message Queues - System Design Explorer
Messaging Message Queues

Message Queues

Queue-based messaging for background work: one message is typically handled by one consumer.

What you get

  • Decoupling between producers and workers
  • Smoothing bursty load (buffering)
  • Retry + DLQ patterns for failures

Design gotchas

  • At-least-once delivery means duplicates; consumers must be idempotent.
  • Visibility timeouts and retries can amplify load if misconfigured.
  • Ordering is rarely global; assume partial ordering at best.

References

Which Message Queue?