Error Handling — What to Do When APIs Fail
Learn how to handle API errors gracefully with retry strategies, circuit breakers, and fallback patterns.
APIs fail. Not sometimes — regularly. Networks go down, servers crash, databases lock up, third-party services have outages, and your own code sends malformed requests. This isn't pessimism — it's reality.
The difference between an app that feels broken and one that feels solid isn't whether errors happen. It's how your code responds when they do.
The Two Categories of API Errors
Every API error falls into one of two categories, and your strategy depends on which one you're dealing with:
Client errors (4xx) — You did something wrong. The request was invalid, you're not authenticated, or the resource doesn't exist. These are bugs in your code or expected edge cases. Retrying the same request won't help.
Server errors (5xx) — The server did something wrong. It crashed, timed
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