Advanced – Non-Functional Testing
Circuit Breaker – ISTQB Definition
Last Updated: July 12, 2026 · SoftwareTestPilot QA Team
Official ISTQB Definition
A resilience pattern that stops calls to a failing dependency after a threshold, allowing it to recover before retrying.
In simple words
A pattern that stops hammering a broken service so it can recover.
Exam tip
Resilience4j and Hystrix are canonical implementations — test open, half-open, and closed states.
Related terms
- Retry PatternAutomatically re-attempting failed calls, usually with a growing delay.
- TimeoutA hard limit on how long an operation is allowed to run.
- Bulkhead PatternWalling off resources so one failure can’t sink the whole system.
- Resilience TestingCheck the system bounces back after crashes or lost dependencies.
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