kb/timeout_slow_service.md

Timeout / Slow Dependency

Symptoms

• Requests fail with timeout or deadline exceeded
• Upstream latency spikes in metrics
• Retries triggered with backoff

Checks

• Measure RTT and latency between caller and dependency
• Inspect dependency saturation (CPU, connections, queue depth)
• Check long-running queries or GC pauses
• Validate timeout/retry configuration and circuit breakers
• Review recent deploys or infrastructure changes impacting latency

Fix

• Tune timeouts/retries to realistic values
• Optimize slow queries or handlers
• Add caching/batching if appropriate
• Scale dependency horizontally or vertically