A payment POST times out: is it safe to retry?
QuizMedium-HardAsked in: Accenture
A client sends POST /payments. The connection drops before any response arrives, so the client sends the same POST again. What is the risk, and what is the usual fix?
- The first request may have succeeded, so the customer can be charged twice; many APIs accept a unique idempotency key header so the server can spot the repeat
- No risk: POST is idempotent
- No risk: a dropped connection means the server did nothing
- Switch the call to GET so it can be retried
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