Problems / Databases, medium

Connection pool exhausted

The database allows 10 connections. Each query holds one for about 20 ms, at 1,500 queries a second.

Free to open. Runs in your browser, no sign-up.

Your goals

Success ≥ 99%, p99 ≤ 500 ms.

The traffic

1,500 requests a second for 30 seconds: 90% reads, 10% writes.

The system

What each component does in this design, and what calls it. The simulator mimics each one from these settings.

ComponentIts job hereSettings
Load balancerLoad balancerTraffic enters here.Calls API.Layer 4 balancers route by IP and port; layer 7 balancers read HTTP and can route by path or header.–
APIApp serviceLoad balancer forwards to it.Calls Postgres.Little's law: throughput ≈ concurrency ÷ latency. 200 slots at 50 ms serve about 4,000 req/s.3 replicas × 200 slots · timeout 1.0 s
PostgresSQL databaseAPI calls it.Postgres runs one process per connection, which is why poolers like PgBouncer sit in front of busy databases.8 vCPU · 10 connections

Hints

Try it first. Open one hint at a time if you get stuck.

Hint 1

Little’s law: connections busy = rate × time each is held.

Hint 2

1,500 × 20 ms = 30 connections.

One way to solve it

Add read replicas (each brings its own connections) or reduce query time.

More databases problems