🚦 Rate Limiting in React Apps

Rate limiting protects your app and backend from abuse by limiting how often a user or client can make requests. While enforcement typically happens on the backend, React apps can implement basic client-side limits as well.

🛡️ 1. Server-Side Is Critical

True protection must be implemented server-side (e.g., via Express middleware like express-rate-limit or APIs like Cloudflare or Nginx). Client-side limits can reduce load but are not secure alone.

⚙️ 2. Throttling in React

Throttling ensures a function (like an API call) is only triggered at most once every X ms.

import { useCallback } from 'react';
import throttle from 'lodash.throttle';

function SearchBox() {
  const handleSearch = useCallback(throttle((query) => {
    fetch(`/api/search?q=${query}`);
  }, 1000), []);

  return (
    <input onChange={(e) => handleSearch(e.target.value)} />
  );
}

🕒 3. Debouncing in React

Debouncing delays function execution until the user stops typing or interacting.

import { useCallback } from 'react';
import debounce from 'lodash.debounce';

function SearchBox() {
  const handleSearch = useCallback(debounce((query) => {
    fetch(`/api/search?q=${query}`);
  }, 500), []);

  return (
    <input onChange={(e) => handleSearch(e.target.value)} />
  );
}

🚧 4. Handle API Rate Limits

If the API responds with a 429 Too Many Requests status, you can notify the user or implement retries:

fetch('/api/data')
  .then(res => {
    if (res.status === 429) {
      alert("You're making requests too quickly. Please wait.");
    }
    return res.json();
  });

📋 Summary

• Server-side rate limiting is essential for protection
• Use throttle and debounce for client-side API call management
• Handle 429 errors gracefully
• React can reduce redundant traffic, but not block abuse